The Crow and the Butterfly
by Menamebephil
Summary: Maikka Fortnight is here, ladies and gentlemen. Let's get... funky.
1. Alcohol and Exposition

**The Crow & the Butterfly.**

_Yay for Maikka drabbles. Will incorporate Maikka Fortnight as soon as it begins.. Will have internal continuity unless otherwise stated, and some form of meta-plot, although the concept of chronological order is the work of the Devil._

–

**Alcohol and Exposition.**

It was the perfect wedding. Of course it was. It was for the perfect couple. The social event of the _millennium_, people were saying. The wedding of the Fire Lord, open only to a select group of guests. The music was perfect, the food was perfect, the guests were happily imperfect, and the booze was, of course, perfect.

It made her want to kill something.

Mai pinched the bridge of her nose, and groaned. She wondered, not for the first time, why she was here.

"...So out of the blue, she says it's not working! I mean, what's she talking about, am I right?"

Oh yes.

Mai turned her head, more slowly than she usually would have. It was getting hard to focus on things now, and in another few bottles' time, she might even be in a better mood.

That was very, _very_ unlikely, though.

And for reasons she couldn't quite understand, this Water Tribesman she vaguely remembered as one of _his_ friends was sitting on the stool next to her, complaining about his love life. Why he thought she cared, she didn't know.

"Surely she must have given you some reason or something," she managed.

"Oh, she said I was 'keeping secrets', and 'not really communicating any more' or something like that," he slurred, and lurched alarmingly.

Mai blinked. "And were you?"

There was a flash of what might have been guilt. "...Maybe. But! But- it's not like she ever _asked_ what I was doing, was it?"

Mai couldn't believe she was having this conversation. So she didn't. Instead, she tapped a (perfect, of course, this occasion demanded nothing else) nail on the counter, getting the attention of the bartender. When he looked up, she raised a conspicuously empty glass.

"I really think you've had enough," tried the apparently suicidal bartender, before the front of his shirt was grabbed, and Mai's stony features were inches from his own.

"Now you listen to me. I am sitting here, celebrating this momentous occasion in the best manner I know how. Your only chance is to keep serving drinks until it's possible I might _miss_ when my patience runs out."

The bartender wasn't impressed.

"Ma'am, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Now."

She considered for half a second stabbing the guy. But no. She didn't want to cause a fuss. Never wanted to cause a fuss. Without a word, she turned and stalked away from the bar, barely knowing where she was going, not stopping until she found herself outside.

The moon was a sliver in the sky, and the air was warm and soporific. The open windows of the hall wafted soft music onto the balcony. Somewhere in the background, it was almost certain the some small and acceptably non-horrifying insect was chirping laconically.

And then Mai stormed through, carrying with her a cloud of alcohol and black melancholy. The ambiances warred, the warm quilt of nature attempting to hide the porcupine in the bed that was Mai's ill humour.

It was a close call.

The air swirled, trying desperately to reconcile or at least politely ignore this black-clad young woman slumped on a bench, ruining the mood for anyone else who might take a stroll on the balcony. To the trained observer, it might have looked as if there was an ultraviolet fireworks display emanating from Mai, or perhaps that she were made of red-hot iron that had been plunged into icy water. Ty Lee could have written a book.

Assuming, of course, that she had the attention span.

–

Sokka was trying, with some measure of success, to forget exactly why he was there.

Things had been, from his point of view, ever so slightly gently elegantly fucked up for a while. After everything had ended, after the Comet, after everything, then things had got... complicated. Purely from his point of view, the first thing he had wanted was to go home. So he did.

The South Pole was like a slow death. Everything seemed so restricting, so stifling. Every day seemed like a fight to survive, and no one had the time for much else. Living seemed to be the object, and not the means.

He had left before the year ended. Oh sure, there had been visits every now and again, but he'd never seriously entertained the thought of living there again.

He wondered if he was disappointing his Dad, sometimes.

He'd roamed around a little after that- Suki had been with him, before the responsibilities of her position reluctantly drew her home. It confused him, belatedly, why his first instinct had not been to follow her. He had mainly travelled the Earth Kingdom, stopping by to visit the Machinist for a few enlightening weeks, chasing a wild rumour of a man with a black sword out west, but mainly wondering why he felt the need to keep wandering.

Aang had tailed him, worried that he was unhappy and in need of help. Toph had done the same, although she had gone to great lengths to ensure that he understood that it was simply because she had nothing better to do, and he wasn't too far away, and she felt like getting out of the house.

All in all, he had preferred Toph's company. She had left him some money. And Aang had depressed him.

But Aang had been an interesting source of news, at least. He and Katara had elected to stay with Zuko, at least until his fledgling reign had stabilised, but situations that required his attentions were not limited to the Fire Nation, and the young Avatar was being run ragged.

Sokka had never seen Aang look worn down before.

It was about that time that he had run into Zuko's uncle, brewing tea in a clearing in the woods.

That... had been kind of a weird meeting. It had started with a cup of tea and ended with Sokka being told to memorise a whole list of code words and handed a pai sho tile. And there had been a board game in there somewhere too.

So now he had a legitimate reason to be up and about all the time. The problem was he couldn't tell anyone about it.

Which sucked. He'd thought about resigning, but... at least he had some kind of purpose now.

And they'd given him a new sword. Courtesy of Master Piandao, Iroh had said.

That bothered him, for some reason he couldn't define.

It was a nice sword, and he had made a point of thanking Master Piandao the next time he had stayed with him, but it was still a sword.

Some part of Sokka had been optimistic, and hoped that he really wouldn't have to use a sword again. At least for a while. The rest of him knew that was a stupid thing to think.

Oh, it hadn't all been bad, these last couple of years. There had been that time he'd stopped that attempt to assassinate Zuko, that had been kind of fun. Zuko had known, too (well, it was kind of Sokka's fault, there. But then how was he to know that the guy was going to charge that way? You'd have thought from the way some people had talked that Sokka had _meant_ to dive out that window with the assassin and disrupt Zuko's little procession.). And Katara had known.

At the time, he had merely been overjoyed to see Katara again. It had been months, and although he had kept in contact with letters to her, it was good to actually talk to her again.

But she had a strange air about her, and he found himself asking after Aang, and not noticing the flicker of her eyes as his name was mentioned.

He'd left before he could get embroiled. Besides, he had stuff he had to do.

Of course, being engaged in a subtle game of checks and balances with the fate of the terrifyingly fragile peace everyone had sacrificed so much for on the line was absolutely _no_ excuse to avoid a little domestic drama. He could see what was coming, and he wanted no part of it. Perhaps he was being cruel, perhaps he just had a low tolerance for that sort of thing, but Katara was a strong girl, and smart enough to make her own decisions.

Besides, by this time he was having problems of his own.

He knew it wasn't his fault. She knew it too, really. He did visit every chance he got, but the problem was that he got very few chances, and he couldn't tell her what he was doing.

In a kind of fit of desperation, he had asked Iroh if there was no way Suki could be inducted. Nope, she was partisan. Too closely connected to Kyoshi Island to make the right decisions.

Sokka had asked about Bumi- after all, wasn't he a _king_?

Bumi, apparently, was a special case.

Sokka took that to mean he was completely and utterly mad. Tired of all this deception, Sokka announced his resignation from the Order, flung his tile at Iroh's enormous head, and made a beeline straight for Kyoshi Island.

Okay, that's what he _should_ have done. But he didn't. And next week he helped track down a serial murderer in the Fire Nation Colonies.

And, well, Suki eventually got tired of it. The worst part was all Sokka really felt at the end was relief.

It had hardly been surprising, a few weeks later, when Katara caught wind, that she demanded he come home. What had been a little surprising though, was that she was referring to the Fire Nation.

At least that had given him some advance warning when Aang burst into his little camp a few weeks later, in what Sokka had heard referred to as 'emotional distress'. That hadn't been fun.

Aang had said a lot of things, not all of them coherent. Sokka was _good_ at incoherent, though. Aang was clearly hurting, and hurting _badly_. He needed a rest, or a holiday, somewhere were no-one was asking him to fix the world all by himself.

He didn't get the luxury. He left for Ba Sing Se three days later, to help calm a dispute over the price of bread. _Bread_ for crying out loud.

Sokka sent a letter to Toph, and hoped that would do some good.

A matter of weeks later, and Katara was sending him another letter asking why he hadn't visited yet. Sokka was running out of excuses.

So he had gone, unwillingly, to the Fire Nation. He really, really didn't want to. He didn't want to _know_, because if he_ knew_ he'd have to _care_, and if he cared, he'd have to pick a side, and then everything would be wrong.

It would have been easier if there had been someone to blame. No one, _no one_ could say Aang was the bad guy here, and Sokka was getting wound up to punch Zuko in his stupid scarred face the next time he saw him, but...

They'd been happy. Really, truly happy. Sokka knew Katara had never meant to hurt Aang, and Aang had loved her like crazy, but _everyone_ wanted something from Aang, the poor bastard, and he just couldn't stay in one place, not now, not in the foreseeable future, and, well, he had kind of ditched her in the Fire Nation while he rushed around like a waiter trying to carry an enormous tray of plates on an overwaxed floor.

But that didn't stop there being Words. Oh yes, he and Zuko had Words. To his credit, Zuko had hardly flinched.

It had seemed unfair to bring up Aang, but Sokka was getting his punches in while he could. Better to have this out in private than leave it until it was too late. Zuko, to his credit, had the decency to be ashamed, but it didn't stop him. Sokka left it at that.

It didn't occur to him later to ask- didn't Zuko have a girlfriend last he checked?

Too late to ask, though. The Talk had been Talked. There would be no second Words with Zuko.

So the months passed, and Sokka left the palace to train at Master Piandao's estate. It had been a nice change of pace.

Of course, then Zuko had to ruin everything and track him down and ask him for permission.

Permission. To marry Katara.

Why couldn't he have asked a _difficult_ question? Like, "which kneecap do you think you'd miss least?"

But in the end, well, he was here, wasn't he?

…

Oh hell.

Sokka realised far too late that he had _utterly_ failed to forget why he was here, and was, as a direct consequence, very sober.

"Screw this. I'm going outside."

* * *

**Not enough Zutara stories consider what a _massive kick to the balls_ the pairing would be to both Aang and Mai. Seriously, consider how much emotional investment they put in their canonical significant other. Now imagine that person turning around and apolagetically telling them that it's just not working out, and they've found someone else.**

**People. _Consider the angst_. _Why are you avoiding this? Zutarians love angst_.  
**


	2. Deadpan

**Deadpan.**

The air hung defeated. Mai's ill temper had conquered the balcony. Anyone who attempted to join her in taking the summer night's air was struck, as they neared the doors, by a sudden feeling of foreboding, a primal warning not to step out onto the balcony cried out from the depths of their soul.

Sokka had never listened to his soul, and so ambled out into the night untroubled.

"Oh. Mai. How you doing? I mean, I just saw you, but never actually got around to asking, and I guess late is better than never. Actually that's pretty conditional. I mean, a guy who discovers a cure for the disease that killed everyone he knows is probably too late to do anything _with _ the cure, so I guess it would have made no real difference either way, and..."

Mai theatrically covered her ears.

"Save me from talkative drunks," she grumbled, mostly for her own benefit.

"Hey, I'm not drunk. Any more," Sokka protested, perhaps too much.

Mai looked askance at him.

"How did you manage that?"

Sokka glanced away. "Stuff."

"'Stuff'."

"Yup." Obstinacy was weaved into his response like a particularly ugly carpet.

"You could at least have picked a response that follows a few grammatical conventions."

"Well, I didn't."

"Worthless peon."

"Bitch."

"Wow. I think I actually _heard_ the bar being lowered with that one. Seriously. It went 'klunk'."

"Now who's the talkative drunk?"

Pleasantries exchanged, the two lapsed into silence for a while, Mai reigning on her stone bench, Sokka leaning unconcernedly over the balcony, arms folded as he stared up into the night.

Mai was deriving great satisfaction from completely ignoring everything she had ever been taught about ladylike posture, and slumping ungracefully. Unfortunately, she could only slump so far before she fell backwards off the bench entirely and cracked her head on the balcony. So it was a very calculated slouch, which kind of defeated the purpose. Eventually, she gave up and just went back to sitting normally, with a little regret. At least no one noticed the defeat of her principles.

Sokka eyed Mai warily, as one might humour a mentally unwell man with an axe (in the storeroom of a butchers, in the middle of the night, while you didn't have any weapons other than your boomerang. If you wanted to get specific.). She had been shuffling in her seat for about five minutes now, and it was starting to bother him.

"You know, most of us have managed to master sitting down by the time they hit, what, three weeks old? You might need to get a little help with that."

Mai didn't respond, and Sokka, against the odds, found himself slightly disappointed. Mai at least fought back, unlike _some_ people, who either didn't get it (Zuko, Aang) didn't have the patience (Katara) or got bored very quickly and moved off to find something more fun to do (Toph).

Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

She seemed to be... brooding. Brooding drunkenly.

Oh, this couldn't end well. She was going to murder someone, wasn't she?

Crap. Sokka was the only person she could see.

Crap. He was going to get murdered.

Crap.

"-Sokka-"

"Don't murder me!"

Mai blinked.

"Only if you answer my question."

Sokka dived at the one chance he could see at enjoying life with an un-slit throat.

"Sure. Ask away," he said, magnanimously, spreading his arms wide.

Mai stood up, striding purposefully into the centre of the balcony, lit up by the moonlight. She fixed him with a steady, serious look. It was almost defiant.

"Am I attractive?"

Oh great.

Sokka considered. It seemed the only safe way out.

Mai certainly had a... _look_ going. She wasn't what you would call _classically_ beautiful- she was far too sharp for that, but she was in a way more subtle than most girls of Sokka's acquaintance. Apart from her physical charms- which, not to put too fine a point on it, were numerous, and he had been aware of them for a long while- she seemed to exude an air of _control_. It wasn't something that he was entirely sure he had noticed anywhere else- it wasn't brusque or obvious, but it was... _there_. It was an attitude that told the world that she was going to do whatever she wanted, and the world better damn well accommodate her, if it knew what was good for it.

It was also, as far as Sokka was beginning to notice, unbelievably sexy.

Well, not notice. Perhaps remember.

"Yes. You are."

Mai seemed unmoved.

"You took a long time thinking about it."

Sokka shrugged.

"It was worth thinking about."

That, at least, got a reaction, even if it was just a muted snicker.

"Ha. Use that one on everyone?"

"Nope. Just thought it up."

"You_ are_ drunk."

"So are you."

"Well, _I_ never denied it."

Mai suddenly realised she was standing a lot closer to Sokka than she had really planned to be. Then she wondered why she cared. Eventually, she determined that she didn't after all.

"So," Sokka started to ask, and then thought better of it.

"What am I doing out here?" Mai suggested.

"Well, I wasn't gonna ask, but now you've brought it up..."

"Ty Lee insisted I go, but I don't have to enjoy myself. She also warned me not to start any fights. Avoiding everyone seemed the best way of doing that."

Sokka raised his eyebrows.

"That was all it took? Ty Lee asking?" Sokka had met the acrobat a few times, and while she seemed nice enough, if a little odd, it was hard to imagine her having much swaying power over Mai's decisions.

"No. She said that I was going, or she'd break Azula out of wherever she's locked up and take _her_ to the wedding."

"Oh." By all accounts, and a couple of visits, Azula was still... unstable. And keen to finish Zuko.

"I figured that I would do the noble thing, and suffer for the good of any innocent bystanders." Mai was, as far as Sokka could tell, regretting her choice, it seemed.

The quiet returned, and a could that had covered the moon rolled away, illuminating the spacious balcony. Soft music drifted out from the window.

And Mai was looking introspective again. She seemed to have forgotten that Sokka was even there.

An idea leapt into his head. It was a bad idea, he could tell. At best, it was a complete long shot, and could have utterly disastrous consequences.

Ah, you only live once.

He extended his hand. Mai stared at it as though she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know what it was.

"Care to dance?"

Mai blinked.

"What," she asked, slowly, for the benefit of the retarded barbarian "makes you think I want to dance?"

"Nothing at all," he replied, with a rakish grin. "I want to dance, and you're the only person out here."

For a few awkward moments, they froze, like some spectacularly dull performance art.

"Alright." She took his hand, and the two moved into the centre of the balcony.

Something occurred to her, suddenly.

"Do you even _know_ any of the courtly dances?"

"Nope," was his cheery response.

"So what do you propose we do? I'm not teaching, if that's what you're wondering." They reached the centre, and paused, her hand still in his, although it was almost unwillingly now.

He suddenly pulled her a _lot _closer than she was anticipating, one hand resting on the small of her back, and her eyes widened a fraction (Sokka noticed, and grinned in amusement). Rolling with it, Mai laid her free hand on his bare arm (and Sokka heard a muted clink of steel under her sleeves, reminding him that this wasn't any girl, and he was relying on her good humour just to avoid a possible knifing. He grinned anyway, for the thrill of it.)

"Improvise," he drawled.

–

What was that?

Ty Lee looked up from her conversation with the short earthbender girl who hadn't given her name (but she was _so_ familiar from somewhere, after all, not many people had that shade of pale yellow about them), and excused herself.

She had been keeping a corner of an eye on her friend all evening. Mai certainly needed it- she had darkened considerably these last few months, and Ty Lee _knew_ that was a bad sign, and she had noticed her flecks around the edges fading almost completely, until she was nothing but a mass of uniform, dark dull _grey_. Last she checked, Mai had been sitting at the bar, which Ty Lee had tried to tell her was a bad habit and not a healthy response to her problems but Mai had gone ahead and started drinking anyway because who listens to Ty Lee?

Absolutely nobody, that's who, but that was neither here nor there.

Mai had moved on, maybe ten minutes ago, which Ty Lee was sort of maybe considering thinking a good thing, because hey, at least her liver would thank her later, but her mood was stagnating, stinking up the balcony.

Except it wasn't any more.

Ty Lee was curious. Sure, the wedding had been a glorious occasion, and it was nice to chat to Zuko's new wife, even if Katara had seemed uneasy around her, Ty Lee had found the best way to deal with that attitude was ignore it completely, which was handy because that would have been what she would do even if she hadn't figured that out, but anyway she had talked to everyone she recognised, and everyone she didn't recognise looked busy talking about politics, and if there was one topic that was guaranteed to depress Ty Lee, it was politics, and if something had shaken Mai out of her mood, well, that was worth going to see.

So she did.

–

"Mai? Are you- oh."

She found her. Them. They were dancing.

Well, that explained that, then.

Ty Lee hovered in the doorway, watching the pair. They weren't spectacular, but then most Fire Nation dances were really just walking in a kind of formation, very stiff, very boring, they could hardly be called a dance at all.

Perhaps this was a Water Tribe dance. In any case, Mai's aura was crackling, alive for the first time that evening, and his- a vivid, electric green, one Ty Lee had _no _trouble remembering- was ablaze, flickering up to hers.

It was better than fireworks. But perhaps she should leave them alone. Mai held the bizarre opinion that she could only enjoy herself if no-one could tell. It was strange, but you had to make accommodations for your friends.

–

The music ended. Sokka stepped back, and smiled.

"Thank you," he said. "That was fun."

Mai rolled her eyes.

"I'm so glad. Well, see you around."

And she walked off. Just like that, leaving Sokka alone with the moonlight.

"Huh."

–

**Wow. Could I have picked any more tired a trope?**

**Lay off, I'm busy.**


	3. Demands

**Demands.**

_1/3_

Colonel Guang (retired) had put up with, in his humble opinion, a lot in his life. He had led his men into some of the most dangerous fronts of the war. He had thrived in the Court of Fire Lord Ozai. He had survived a conversation with a slightly drunk Admiral Jeong-Jeong. He had tolerated his daughter becoming a dour and irritating young woman, who constantly frustrated him with her preference for using her wit to irritate and belittle. He had survived the anger of Princess Azula. He had tolerated being woken up at four every morning by his son. He had endured defeat and capture at the hands of King Bumi. He had managed (although he really wasn't sure how) to endear himself to said King enough that after the fall of Ozai, Bumi had demanded Guang be instated as Ambassador to Omashu. He had even managed to survive it all with something approaching a smile, which of course people took to mean he was an idiot.

But there were some things he would not stand for.

His fist clenched with the urge to simply leap across the clearing and kill the man then and there. He quashed the feeling expertly, and loosened his hand.

"Why?" he asked, as calmly as he could.

"There will be no questions, please," the fey man replied. "You are here to listen, and that is all." The man's companion, a bony, hollow faced man, shuffled uneasily in his armour. "Now, our terms are simple. We want nothing less than complete autonomy from your King, for all the colonies."

Guang stood still, not reacting.

"Is that all?"

"Hardly. We also demand the release of all our brothers in prison, immediately. And a "

"That seems a steep price for one girl."

The fey man shrugged, paradoxically elegantly. "Then your task is simply more difficult."

"My task?"

"My dear man, stop playing games. You have the ear of your King Bumi. Persuade him."

"He won't be persuaded. You're wasting your time."

Another shrug. "Then I suggest you tell me how you would plan to ensure that our demands are met. Otherwise, well, I am afraid that your daughter will be of no use to us."

It would be so easy. One quick snap of the arm, and this man would be nothing but a smear on the grass.

Guang shook himself internally. That line of thinking was never smart.

So he would play along.

He put on a great show of thinking.

"Bumi has always had enemies. Despite enjoying popular support, many in court see him as... capricious. It could be possible to unite them, and have Bumi declared insane." No, it wouldn't be possible. It was completely idiotic to assume that Bumi could be deposed by anything other than time.

"Well, I see you have the situation well in hand." The man turned to leave.

"Wait. I want to see her."

"Hmm? Oh, no."

"You're not very good at this, are you?"

The man tossed his hair, offended.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"Well, if I don't get to see her, I have no reason to believe that you still have her. You could have" a completely imperceptible pause "killed her, she could have escaped, it might not have even been you who kidnapped her. You're not doing a very good job of persuading me, and this kind of incompetence is just persuading me that you're bluffing."

The man threw back his head, and laughed. His companion seemed determined to project the image that he had absolutely nothing to do with this meeting, and was in fact just waiting for a friend of his, so they could go and catch lunch.

"Oh very good, sir, very good indeed. I see I could learn a lot from you. And you're right, we're not giving you too much to focus on, are we?" His voice turned nasty. "But your weaknesses are well documented, sir." He put on a bizarre falsetto, and his companion winced. "Oh, he's quite the family man, good sirs. Would go to the ends of the earth for them." His voice dropped back down. "But I am not completely heartless, so here."

He threw a knife at Guang's head.

But Guang was already moving, rolling out of the path of the blade and pulling into a stance.

He still had it.

"Good day, sir." The man was walking away. His companion shook his head despairingly, and followed him, all clanking armour.

Guang watched them go, then went for the knife.

It was one of Mai's.

–

When he returned to Omashu, he found Bumi sitting at his dinner table, patting his wife on the back and looking uncomfortable.

"Well?" he asked, as they both looked up.

Guang shook his head.

"Fine. Call your man."

–

"So, you really don't know what this is about?" Aang asked, from over his shoulder.

Sokka shrugged.

"Order stuff, I guess. You know how it is."

"Heh. Hey, I can't complain. I mean, your group has really helped recently."

"Yeah." And some days that was really the only reason he stayed. Aang needed all the help he could get. Even if it meant being run ragged sometimes.

Apparently, the Order weren't historically this busy, but with this damn secessionist issue hanging over everything, they'd been forced to step in more and more. Unbeknownst to almost everyone, war had nearly broken out at least five times, and that was just the times Sokka knew about. The Order had intervened each time, and they would have to keep intervening. The only other option was to just let another war break out, and let everyone fight it out. Which would be bad.

So sometimes Sokka would get a message, saying that he had to go to such-and-such a town, and track down someone murdering people in the colonies for some kind of general revenge, or that there was a secessionist planning to assassinate Zuko, or something like that. Generally he was in the area ahead of time, and that was why they called on him.

He'd never been picked up by sky bison before. Maybe this was serious.

Aang had apparently been asked by Iroh if he was free to play taxi, and he'd said yes. Or, from what Sokka knew of Iroh, hadn't said 'no' quite fast enough.

Meh, at least he got to fly again. He'd missed that.

–

Guang was sitting up in his drawing room. His wife was busying herself in putting their son to bed, and trying to pretend that she wasn't a wreck.

He was drinking coffee. It was an Omashu drink, one that had failed to gain widespread popularity due to it's unsubtle flavour, but he was in need of something strong and he'd given up drinking when Mai was born. He hadn't regretted that decision so much since Mai had been four. He was also trying not to look at the knife on the table. It just set him of worrying again.

There was a sharp knock on the door, and he stood, slowly, wincing at the cracks from his spine before he answered the door.

He was confronted with the sight of a Water Tribesman with a slightly embarrassed grin.

"Um, hi there. Mind if I come in?" he asked, with a wide grin.

Guang inwardly winced. He had had a premonition.

"You wouldn't be... Sokka, would you?"

"That's me."

Oh dear.

"Well, I ...suppose you'd better come in," he sighed.

"Hey, thanks."

Sokka sloped into the room like a fat archangel while Guang sat down again.

"Can I offer you a drink?" he asked.

"A glass of water might be nice," Sokka conceded, looking far too much at ease in his seat.

Guang went and got a glass of water from the kitchen. The servants were asleep. He didn't particularly mind.

When he got back, Sokka had noticed the knife, and was examining it intently. When he heard Guang enter, he put it back hurriedly.

"It's one of hers," he said, for something to say.

He could have said 'here's your water', but there you go.

"Oh." It looked like something was niggling at Sokka's brain.

"So," Guang said, sitting opposite him, "you are here to rescue my daughter."

"Apparently, yeah. Bumi said you'd tell me what I needed to know."

"He was right." Guang had spent the previous day while Sokka was in transit poring over maps and plans, trying to be useful.

The particular group that had kidnapped Mai had also seized control of a small town a few miles north of Omashu, and dug in. Sensible in the short term, but utterly, utterly moronic if they were thinking they were going to survive more than a week.

In fact, this entire exercise had the reek of gross incompetence about it.

This did not make Guang feel any better at all. After all, any idiot could work out how to murder someone, and more often than not it took a smart man to figure out when not to.

He wished he could convince himself that Mai was tough enough to make it through unscathed, but he couldn't. He'd seen for himself that the arrogant confidence of youth made for exceptionally poor armour.

And she would be just the kind to talk back, too. She knew what a bad idea that was, he knew she was smart enough and had seen enough of life, but Mai's problem was she'd do things she knew were a bad idea, just for a moment's amusement. And it would never occur to her that she might have finally found a situation she couldn't walk away from.

…

Sokka cleared his throat.

"Mr. Guang? Are you... you've been looking at that map for five minutes. Should I come back later, or..."

"Sorry." He shook his head. "Let's get started."

–

The briefing was routine, but brought back memories. This had been his role, once he had gotten too old to be an effective field soldier. He'd created plans for others to follow, explained the terrain, what they could expect to encounter, how long they had to complete their objectives. It had been his duty to learn every battlefield like the back of his hand.

And after a while, he'd gotten pretty good at it.

"You should be able to make it through the woods without much difficulty, but you'll have to be quick while you can. Once you've made it to the sneaking point-"

"The what now?"

Although he had developed a few idioms along the way.

"The sneaking point. The point at which you'll have to start sneaking."

"Oh. Well, that makes sense."

"I know. If I may continue? Thank you. Anyway, you will ideally have made your way to the sneaking point by sundown. From there, you will have to avoid _any_ contact until you're inside. I need to make sure you understand, Sokka."

Sokka looked serious for the first time since he had walked in the door. Perhaps there was hope for him yet.

"No one at all?"

"No. If you get seen, the mission is a failure. If they're smart enough to have set patrols, and one doesn't report in, the mission is a failure. If a sentry gets hit on the back of the head, and wakes up a few minutes later, the mission is a failure. You _cannot_ afford to even accommodate the possibility of alerting them before you're inside."

"Inside... where, exactly?"

"The barracks."

"..." Sokka blinked. "Sorry, I was waiting for the 'probably'."

"If I'm certain of anything, I'm certain that they'll have set up shop in the barracks. It's the only remotely defensible spot in town, and it's the only place with a jail cell. These clowns are incompetent, but the fact that they managed to get dressed this morning means that they're not _that _incompetent."

"Still..."

"I've been doing this for close to thirty years. After a while, things tend to repeat themselves."

"Oh? When was the last time-"

"Seventeen years ago, when the Earth Kingdom made their last successful push into the colonies. Their attack lost momentum and was reduced to splintered groups trying to hold the land they had gained. I directed and personally led five assaults on small towns like this one, and every time the barracks was their main hub of defence."

"Okay then."

"Are you sure? I could go on."

"No, I'm good."

"Then perhaps we can continue without any more interruptions."

He didn't mean to be short-tempered, but he was used to briefing trained professionals, and he had had a trying few days.

"Once you are inside the barracks, head for the holding cells, located in the basement level. You will still need to remain unnoticed until you have released my daughter. From there, use any and all means necessary to get her out of there as quickly as possible. Understood?"

Sokka nodded.

"Once you're back here, we can begin with phase two. I understand you arrived with the Avatar?"

"That's right, but he's possibly the least sneaky guy in the entire world."

"That won't be an issue, I assure you."

Sokka wasn't sure he liked the sound of that.

But anyway.

"Right. I guess I'd better get moving, then."

Guang raised his eyebrows.

"You're going dressed like _that_? With that sword?"

Sokka was starting to get annoyed.

"It's what I've got, okay? I didn't get time to pack a change of clothes."

Guang appraised him. Slightly too tall, but hopefully that wouldn't be an issue.

"Wait here. I'll be back in a moment."

–

Guang thanked Agni that he had been sentimental enough to bring this stuff with him. The suit had ballmoths in its pockets- the damn creatures got everywhere, and he hadn't aired this out in years- but they hadn't started eating at it yet, which was a blessing.

And the knife had seen use as a letter opener these past ten years, but he'd kept it sharp, mostly out of habit.

Sokka looked nonplussed when he was handed the equipment.

"It's a... suit of armour? I think? I like the cloak, though. And the green and grey to kind of complement one another."

"It's a sneaking suit. It's camoflauge. It won't stop more than glancing blows, but the point of it is so you don't get hit at all."

Sokka glanced at Guang.

"You like that word, don't you? 'Sneaking'." Guang ignored him.

"Here. Take this as well." He handed over the long knife, which Sokka drew. It was a muted, dark grey, less likely to draw attention than Sokka's long shiny jian.

"And these. She'll want them." He handed over a collection of knives, hastily and somewhat shamefacedly raided from Mai's room.

Sokka stared in blank recognition at the weapons for a moment. Then he blinked.

"_Mai_? _Mai_ got kidnapped?"

"Yes. My daughter. Did no one tell you?"

Sokka looked almost patronising.

"Um, _no_. No one tells me anything if they can get away with it."

"Believe me, I know the feeling. But is it important that Mai is my daughter? To you?"

"Hmm? No, it's just, you know, small world."

"I take it you... met... in the war."

"Yeah, we significant pause met a couple times."

"Is that going to be a problem? If you're at all conflicted, I can't let you go."

"No, no, nothing like that." Sokka paused. "Actually, I kinda owe her one. She saved my life one time. She probably didn't _mean_ to, but still."

"Well, now you have the chance to return the favour. Now come on, we're wasting time."

* * *

_**Yes, this is basically a love letter to Mai's Dad, who I am calling "Guang" because the Chinese word for "King" was no good, and the Chinese word for "smirk" was "Xiao", sounding too much like "Zhao". "Guang" means "square", which amuses me.**_

_**Roy Campbell. Look him up.**_

_**Anyway, Mai's Dad. I know what we see of him in canon is a slightly idiosyncratic Lord who is more concerned with his family than with his own survival, but I figured Mai had to get her smarts from somewhere, and I don't think her mother really fits the bill. Although there may be more to her than meets the eye. But then again perhaps not. Who knows? I don't, that's for sure.**_

_**Also, way back in chapter one I implied that linear storytelling was heretical. If that's the case, call me Alistair Crowley.**_

_**This chapter feeds my crippling addiction to Plot.**_


	4. Escape

**Escape.**

_2/3_

Appa touched down in a clearing, two miles from the village. The sun had set.

Sokka stood, and grabbed his sword.

"You shouldn't take that. It's just going to slow you down."

Sokka frowned at Guang.

"Look, I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it, okay? Remember, I can't shoot fire from my hands."

"Alright, if you must." He seemed to be struck by a sudden thought. "Check your pocket. No, the other one. Third pouch down, left hand side."

Sokka produced from the pouch a small twist of paper. Aang peered at it, feeling somewhat left out.

"What's this?" He opened one end, and peered inside. "Crystals?"

"Now, if you can't get away, or you need backup, find a high point like a rooftop and throw those into a fire. They'll turn it bright green." He thought for a second. "You might want to get to a safe distance first. We'll come and assist you. But only use this if you have absolutely no other choice."

"How do they work?"

"I have no idea."

"You never wondered?"

"No. Get moving, you're wasting moonlight."

Sokka dropped down off Appa's side, into the long grass of the clearing. His eyes flicked up to the sky, and he nodded.

"Good luck," Aang called, as Sokka slipped into the darkness.

–

Mai sighed, and counted the bricks on the wall again. It wasn't exactly something to do, but there wasn't much else. She'd annoyed her jailer enough for today- any more reciting poetry and he might actually follow through on one of his threats.

Yesterday had been kind of fun, when the poncy leader of this operation had stopped by to explain a bit of his grand vision. Mai had been unable to contain her amusement.

A _Republic_. Honestly, the whole thing sounded like a practical joke political theorists were playing on gullible people.

–

The woods were quiet, and dark. They held no terrors for Sokka, who hurried onwards, his path ever lit by the light of the moon.

He had lived and hunted in the wilds on and off for over three years now, and moving silently had become second nature. That wasn't on his mind.

No, he was bothered by the crystals Mai's father had given him.

They weren't green. Apparently they burned a very bright green. How was this possible? Why did they do that?

He would have to keep a few, and give them to the Machinist. He was better equipped to study them.

He had visited the Northern Air Temple after Katara's wedding- six months ago, now. There, he had been one of the first to hear the Mechanist's exiting and somewhat controversial new theory.

Classical wisdom held that the world was divided into four elements, all in different quantities- air, water, earth, and fire.

Sokka had long held the opinion that 'Classical Wisdom' was just an excuse not to think, and apparently the Machinist shared this view. He had been testing iron, and had come to the conclusion that no matter how you burned, dampened, or dried earth, or any combination thereof, you would never produce iron.

Classical Wisdom had been disproved once again.

Sokka had been a keen assistant, and the two of them had begun to work backwards. Wood had been their first subject. If one exposed wood to fire, you got ash. Ash was not earth- no bender could affect it. Therefore Ash was an element. And wood was Ash + Water + Air, although they hadn't got that quite working yet.

Or perhaps not. There were still more tests to run, after all. But that was the concept, and the Mechanist was always on the lookout for more things to break down.

Sokka had explained his work to Aang one time. Aang had been puzzled, but interested. He and Sokka had discussed the implications of their work on benders. If there were dozens more elements that no one could bend, did that mean there were whole subgroups of undiscovered benders? Was Toph an ur-example?

He would have to send Toph on a holiday to the Northern Air Temple. Perhaps she would learn patience, when confronted with the drudgery and repetition of scientific technique.

Sokka hoped that all this wouldn't get into the public eye, at least not for a while. The secessionists would jump on it and use it to defuse one of the arguments against them, and Sokka really didn't want to be held responsible when that happened. No matter how he explained it, Katara would understand it was his fault. Somehow.

Moonlight glinted off metal up ahead. Sokka ducked behind a tree.

A patrol. He must be getting close.

–

Ping shuffled unwillingly through the undergrowth, grumbling to himself.

It wasn't fair. Why did _he_ have to go and patrol the woods every night? The boss seemed to have got it into his head that Ping was an experienced woodsman, just because Ping had let it slip that he occasionally went on a camping trip.

And why did he have to wear this armour? It was big, heavy, and _red_. Ping _hated _red. And this spear? Completely useless. Someone had stored it in the damp, and the handle- never good to begin with- was warping.

This was just _great_.

–

Sokka grinned to himself as he slipped past the man.

Too easy.

–

Honestly, the _vote_? In the _colonies_?

It might have made a bit of sense in the Fire Nation, sure, but in the Fire Nation the majority of the population could at least _read_.

–

There was a problem. He could see the town now, through the trees. Unfortunately, there were a group of men between him and it. And they didn't look like they were going anywhere.

The moonlight illuminated the scene. There were four of them, and at least one of them looked like he was paying attention. Nuts.

Sokka breathed lightly from his hiding place among the bracken. This was no good, everywhere was too light.

He was going to have to turn back, and try somewhere else.

The moon passed behind a cloud. The shadows vanished, replaced by a cloying darkness.

_Now_.

He half-stood, slipping behind a tree, and braced himself. After a moment, he began, flitting from tree to tree, making no more noise than a shadow.

He traced a wide circle around the men, taking few chances, but the darkness hung about him, and they had more chance of spotting the beetles in the undergrowth.

–

Okay, she was officially no longer amused by the idea of the vote.

Anything else?

Nope?

Well, that was fun. Time to break out.

–

He had reached the outskirts of town. He looked up into the night, and gave a half-smile and a nod before returning to the task at hand.

Now, where was that barracks?

–

…

How had she planned to escape again?

Oh bugger.

–

The town wasn't deserted.

Sokka had been formulating a rough plan based on the assumption that all or most of the civilians would no longer be around. This was not the case. Every house had at least one light on, and he could see people moving about, and occasionally the murmur of voices from a window. They weren't panicked, as far as he could tell- it was almost like they were... watching, waiting to see which way this all went.

Sokka was starting to suspect that there was more to this than he had been told.

Seriously. Why did people feel the need to keep him in the dark? Sure, he was a junior member and all, but it was his ass on the line here, and it would be nice to occasionally told _why_ what he did was important to preserve peace.

It was official- being the youngest guy in the club _sucked_.

Oh shit, patrol.

–

Well, this was embarrassing.

It turned out that she actually had no idea how she was going to escape.

Well.

That sucked.

Perhaps she should start thinking.

A door, somewhere, slammed open, and there was a cacophony of raised voices.

Perhaps she should start thinking _really quickly_.

–

Oh crap.

Sokka had darted down a side street, only to see at the other end another patrol heading his way. It was only a matter of time before he was seen, and then the fun would _really_ begin.

So, what tools did he have?

Well, he had his gear, which would be no good. He had an alleyway, which was only slightly useful, since it was dark. He had rooftops, but there was no way he could get up there in time without being really noisy. And there was a pile of rubbish.

And an abandoned box. About large enough to accommodate the average man, if he was crouching. It looked like it had been used to package fruit, or something.

_Get in the box_.

What? No! That's stupid!

_Get in the box._

But- but-

_Get in the box!_

Okay! I'm getting in the box! This is so undignified.

_Get in the box. Then you'll understand._

Sokka clambered into the box, flipping it upside down, tucking his knees under his chin, and peering through the slats at one end.

Well, this wasn't quite as bad as it might have been. Certainly no one was paying any attention.

From the alley mouth, he saw the patrol turn, and head back the way they came.

Sokka grinned to himself as he got an idea.

–

"So then I says, Poker? That's my wife!"

"... I think you might have got the punchline a bit mixed up, mate."

"...Punchline? I was just telling you what I said. That was one strange party."

"Whatever."

"-Did you hear something?"

"Mate, if this is a setup to another terrible joke, I cannot be held responsible for the next thirty seconds."

"No, seriously, I think I heard something."

"...Don't see anything."

"...Was that box there before?"

"Yes, that box was there before."

"No, it was _there_ last time."

"Look, we are not being stalked by a bloody box, alright? Now come on, I'm freezing my bollocks off out here."

Inside his fortress, Sokka's face was close to splitting.

_This is so cool!_

–

Mai wished, briefly, that she had kept her nails long. Then she might have had a weapon.

Actually, that sounded like it had too much potential to be really, really painful. So maybe it was for the best.

But she still had nothing. And the guards were all-too aware of how dangerous she could be, and kept anything she could throw far far away from her.

Her weapons were restricted to a chamber pot, which was degrading beyond all reason, and her razor wit, which was wasted on these clowns.

But she was going to get out. She was going... to get out... was going...

She needed a nap.

–

Sokka jogged along a dark street, running from his knees, which was a lot more uncomfortable than one might expect. But it was worth it, for he was clad in his armour, his protection from prying eyes, his shield, his fortress.

He was a God. He observed without being observed. He was invincible.

How the hell was he going to get into the barracks?

–

Wow.

Just wow.

Sokka knew these guys weren't exactly _professionals_ or anything, but you'd think they'd remember to lock the side door, at least.

Right? Right?

Apparently not.

Sokka, still unwilling to leave his shell, crept through the deserted barracks.

Something very, very weird was going on here.

Nothing assailed him. Nothing at all. He was undiscovered as he made his way through the building, undisturbed as he padded down the stairs, and even as he opened the door to the cells, no one bothered him.

Something was very, very, very wrong.

He was half expecting Mai to not be there, but there she was, on the floor of one of the cells.

Sound asleep.

A few moments with his lock-picks (to his mild concern, his grandfather had been the one to show him how to use them) opened the cell door. He prodded Mai in the ribs with his boot.

"Hey. Wake up. Come on, I don't wanna have to carry you outta here. Wake up."

The third prod was interrupted. Mai had grabbed his ankle.

"Stop that. Now." She looked up, and squinted. "Who the hell... _Sokka_?"

"Hi. How you doing?"

"...You know, I've been better. But I was having a nice dream." She said this as though she was accusing Sokka of something.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. There were vampires. I was kicking their asses. It was pretty cool." She pulled herself into a sitting position, but seemed in no hurry to leave.

"Huh. Well, I've been sent to get you. Your Dad was concerned."

"My hero," she deadpanned, and got up.

"Yeah, and I suggest we get going, because"

"There's someone behind you."

Sokka turned, and swung at the jailer with the only weapon he had to hand. The box.

It lasted two swings before shattering over the man's head, and he went down, unconscious.

Mai looked around. There didn't seem to be any more.

"Well, that was simple." Then she turned to look at Sokka, who was still holding two pieces of shattered crate.

It looked as though he was about to cry.

Mai blinked. "Is... something wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just- that box was like a box to me."

Mai got the feeling she was missing a few paragraphs.

"Whatever. Now let's go."

"Oh! I have something for you. Here." He handed over a small pouch, full of pointy death.

Sokka observed Mai's face light up for the first time that conversation. Sure, it was a pretty dim light, that even the moth with the lowest self-esteem would hesitate to flit around, but hey, at least she was animated.

"So, can we go now?" he asked, hopefully. This place was starting to worry him.

"Fine."

"Alright then."

The two left the dungeon, and started to climb the stairs.

–

As they made it to the first floor, they were suddenly aware of a clank of armour.

"Alright. That's far enough," a baritone voice rumbled, cracking with age but still commanding. "Drop your weapons, and we can settle this in a civil manner."

Soldiers poured out of every doorway, flooding the corridor.

Mai had only one thing to say.

"Sokka, this is the worst rescue _ever_."

Sokka's response was to drop his sword.

* * *

**Writing stuff is _hard_.**


	5. Trick Shot

**Trick Shot.**

_3/3_

–

Well, she was back in her cell again. Oh well. At least she had more things to think about now.

Why Sokka? Why, out of absolutely everyone in the entire world, was _Sokka _the one that showed up?

But, she supposed she had to thank him for two things.

Of course, she had been searched again, and that search had turned up a bag of knives, but in their haste to get it away from her, it seemed they hadn't noticed that it was somewhat lighter than it should have been. At least twelve knives' worth too light.

Secondly, he had dropped his lockpicks on her foot when he dropped his sword. Maybe he had even meant to do that.

Now, if only she knew how to use a lockpick, she might have had a way out.

–

Sokka blinked into consciousness. He regretted it very quickly.

He was lying on a stone slab. It was very cold. Very very cold.

Why was it so cold?

He raised his arm. Or at least tried to.

Great.

He raised his head. Well, at least that was possible.

First thing- check the surroundings. Look left, look right.

Basement level- cold, very cold, grey stone, a series of stone slabs-

He was in the morgue. Cheerful.

He seemed to be by himself, but the only light was from a torch in a bracket by the door, so anyone could be lurking out of sight.

…

Wait a moment.

In a crumpled pile, below the torch, flung against the wall.

...Those were his pants. And his shirt.

…

_What the fuck_?

Well, that answered the question of why he was so cold, although it brought up a whole host of other questions he _really_ didn't want to know the answers to right now.

So. All in all, this was actually going about as well as everything else he ever participated in. In fact, apart from the whole "stripped to his underwear" thing, this was pretty much par for the course. Oh sure, he wasn't tied to a slab every time, sometimes he'd take an axe to the shoulder, or get poisoned, or some such thing. But this was on a level with those things, at least until someone walked through that door and started asking painful questions.

Right on cue, there was a clank of metal, and the big, heavy door swung open.

–

Maybe she could threaten the jailer into opening the cell door? A sort of 'I have a knife, so open up or I'll kill you through the bars' type thing?

But that could go wrong so easily, and in so many exciting ways. And if it failed, she would have absolutely no chance at all.

She almost preferred having no options at all, and being forced to wait for rescue. Except the guy sent to rescue her had proved laughably incompetent, and so had passed the responsibility on to her.

Great.

–

It was the guy in the armour. The old guy.

"Do you mind? You could have knocked. I mean, I might have been getting changed here."

The man seemed unmoved.

"But seriously, you took my pants? What kind of captor _does_ that?" Sokka paused. "On second thoughts, please don't answer that. Please."

"It was my nephew's idea. He thought if you were uncomfortable, then you would be easier to interrogate. I disagreed, but that never stops him."

"Well, yeah, you might be right, 'cause all I can think about right now is the fact that my balls have shrivelled up so much I may no longer technically be _male_. Seriously, they're like a couple of raisins clinging to-"

"I thought would have nothing of interest to tell us."

"Well, unless you're really creepily interested in how much discomfort I'm in right now, I guess you'd be right."

The man clanked his way over to the wall, where he sat stiffly on a low bench.

"So," Sokka asked. "What's your name?"

"Lee."

"Huh. What a coincidence."

"Except my name is actually Lee."

"Whatever. So, Lee, any chance you could see your way to giving a guy his pants back? I mean, I don't mean to repeat myself, but it is _really really cold _down here. Especially down there, if you follow me."

Lee sighed, and drew his sword. Examining it, he laid it across his knees. Sokka ran a critical eye over it.

"Wow. Is that a sword, or a club carved out of sheet metal? I really can't tell from this angle."

Lee ignored him, instead talking apparently to the sword.

"I do not like this operation. I opposed it at every turn. But my nephew is younger than I, and his vision for our movement appeals to those who have grown frustrated at our slow progress. But this is a step too far." He sounded even older than he looked.

Sokka was confused.

"Man, I know kidnapping a guy's daughter is kind of a dick move, and yeah, you're kind of alienating any moderates who might have supported your movement, but that kind of thing doesn't really deserve that kind of melodramatic tone of voice. Lighten up a little."

Lee stared hard at Sokka.

"You... you have no idea, do you? You do not know a thing."

Sokka was getting _really_ tired of hearing that.

"So tell me."

Lee paused.

"Very well."

At the end of it, Sokka almost wished he hadn't.

–

Right. She had a plan.

Step one: try to pick the lock.

She reached around through the bars, and jammed the two incomprehensible bits of metal into the lock, and wiggled them around as best she could.

Naturally, this attracted the attention of her jailer, sporting a fresh lump on the side of his head, and a bad case of splinters in his face.

"Hey, what're you- stop that!"

Mai paid him not attention, continuing to focus on the lock.

"I said stop that! Right, that's it, missy..."

He marched up intimidatingly to the cell, and snatched at one of Mai's wrists.

"Got, you, you-"

Her free hand flicked a knife at his throat.

"Whoops."

Before his body hit the floor, she grabbed at him, keeping him close enough to the cell door that she could find his keys.

They were attached to his belt.

Oh, nice. She was going to have to take off his belt.

A few minutes later, she was out of her cell, and in search of somewhere to wash her hands.

Oh, and wherever Sokka had been taken, too. She guessed. If it was on the way.

–

Sokka was stewing in his own irritation.

Seriously. He wasn't going to stand for this. He didn't care if it was higher-ups on some kind of power trip, withholding information because it made them feel important and inscrutable, or it was just a crippling deficiency in the information-gathering system, but seriously. This would not stand.

He shuddered to imagine what would have happened if he hadn't learned about this.

What would still happen if he didn't get out.

And yeah, thanks, Lee. Couldn't do anything helpful, could you? Just explained everything and walked off. Yeah, that's great.

And he'd left the door open slightly, too. Well, at least it was a little warmer that way.

A little.

–

Mai was thoroughly, thoroughly lost.

She could have sworn the stairs were that way last time. Stupid stone walls all looking the same.

Well, at least she-

Oh.

There were the distant sounds of clanking metal. Almost as if someone in a heavy suit of armour was walking around.

Well, that couldn't be good.

Mai held her breath, determining where the man was, roughly. And then she walked purposefully in the other direction.

It didn't work. He was getting closer. Quickly.

Urgently, Mai sped up, and ducked into the first open door she saw.

When she saw what was inside, she started to laugh.

–

Sokka, to his eternal shame, found himself flushing.

"Yeah, yeah, very funny, but could you cut me down? And maybe hand me my pants?"

Mai sighed.

"Fine. Then can we go?"

"Nope."

"Somehow, I knew you were going to say that."

–

It was two minutes later. Mai had obligingly looked the other way while Sokka had hopped into his clothes, although she had pointed out that the action was almost pointless. He had maintained that it was the spirit of the thing.

"So, we can't leave... because?"

"Because of what I think your Dad is going to do."

"Dad? What is he going to do? And while we're on the subject, why do you have his letter opener? He never let me touch that, you know."

"Your Dad is waiting with Aang in the woods for us to either get back to them, or give the signal."

"Signal?"

"That's not important. What I think your Dad is planning is to swoop into town with Aang, and capture all these chumps."

"And you have a problem with this."

"Yes."

"Because?"

"Because it's exactly what these guys are expecting, and as soon as Aang sets foot in town, they're going to blow this entire place sky high."

Mai paused.

"Oh. Oh, I see. That's actually quite clever. So this place gets martyred, the Avatar becomes a bogeyman in the Colonies, and everyone rallies around this band of crazies who so diligently worked to prevent the tragedy."

"Something like that."

"So we're not leaving."

"Nope."

Sokka stood, unsheathing his jian, and grinned.

"What, you don't think we can take them?"

Mai shrugged.

"They do have my stuff."

–

The barracks had an office, for the commanding officer. It had the largest windows in the building, overlooking the courtyard. It was here that the dashing rebel leader had decided to stay while waiting for his plan to come together.

"Ah, Uncle," the fey man said, his feet crossed on the desk. "Has our guest divulged the signal yet?"

"No. I fear he may prove too stubborn."

His nephew sighed.

"A shame. Well, I am sure the Avatar shall investigate before too long." He stretched his arms above his head, and reached for one of the knives he had confiscated from his prisoner. He stared at the three inches of steel, mesmerised, tossing it up into the air and watching the candlelight glint along the edge before catching it again.

"Oh, and did you catch the name of our newest guest?"

His Uncle paused.

"Lee."

He laughed.

"What a coincidence. Well, I believe that I shall-"

The door slammed open.

"Alright... crap. Did you catch his name?"

"He might have mentioned it. I'll confess I wasn't listening."

The leader cleared his throat, offended.

"Prisoners are supposed to be in their cells. If you turn back now, I can promise you will not get hurt."

Sokka appeared to consider this.

"Will I get to keep my pants on this time?"

"Of course," he replied, magnanimously.

"Hmm. Mai?"

"What?"

"Kick his ass, would you?"

"If I didn't think that was such a good idea, I would be demonstrating to you right now the consequences of ordering me around."

"Fine with me. Use mister Long-hair as an example. I'll take the old guy."

"Are you quite done?"

Sokka swung his sword at Lee's head, who parried the blow with a _clang_ that echoed painfully in the small room and sent the shockwaves rebounding up Sokka's arm.

Mai ducked to the side, hugging the wall, and readied a knife.

The long-haired man simply grinned, and leapt at the window.

The pane exploded, shattered glass showering the combatants, and they were forced apart as they shielded themselves.

Well, _that_ had been unexpected.

Mai peered out the window. There he was, the smug git, waving upwards, as jovial as you please.

Mai glanced back. Sokka seemed busy. And the guy was out of range from up here.

So she jumped after him.

–

Sokka and Lee broke apart, to better get a handle on the events of the last five seconds.

"What the..."

Lee said nothing, breathing heavily, but it was obvious his thoughts were not on the combat. He looked at the window, then, with a groan of frustration, ran for the door.

Sokka didn't follow him.

At least, not by the stairs.

–

Mai winced. That had been a _lot_ further than she had expected.

But she was on the ground now, and he was still there, smirking, open-palmed.

"Well?"

Mai wasn't about to take the bait. If it seemed this easy, there was probably a catch.

"..aaa_aa_GH! Ow!"

Sokka plummeted out of the sky, and rolled, landing next to her.

Sure, whatever.

"Hi. You want to take this guy?"

Mai shrugged.

"You first. I'll cover you."

"'Kay." And he was off, sword raised, running toward the guy who had that smug grin all over his face right up until the point where he pulled into a bending stance.

Sokka had expected that, and was ready for it.

He wasn't ready for the column of earth that slammed into his chest, knocking the sword from his hand and the wind from his lungs and catapulting him back ten feet, sliding across the dirt until he came to rest almost where he had started.

Mai winced.

Sokka groaned, and looked up as Mai stood near him, keeping half an eye on their adversary, who was still standing there, grinning.

"You alright?"

Sokka mumbled something. Mai frowned, and concentrated on listening.

"..._I got married to the widow next door, she's been married seven ti-imes before..."_

Sokka was not at home, it seemed.

Well that was just great.

"Well, thanks for absolutely nothing," she told his insensible form, and went to battle.

–

There was nothing more frustrating, Mai found, than an enemy that failed to take you seriously.

He could have killed her three times now, but no, he seemed content to knock every knife she threw out of the air, grinning all the while, and occasionally retaliating with a lazily thrown stone.

Mai gritted her teeth, and threw again.

Her hand was empty.

Oh _shit_-

The rock came out of nowhere, sweeping low, scything at her legs just as the ground shook beneath her, knocking her off balance and sending her tumbling to the ground.

Ow.

She scrabbled to her feet, desperately searching for a weapon, but came up empty.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

"Oh well, it was fun, but really, I don't have an excuse to let you live any more. Goodbye."

A flash of steel heralded Sokka's return to the fight.

A flurry of rock knocked him back out of it, slammed to the ground.

But Mai had found her weapon.

She stood, her back to the enemy, and turned the spin into momentum, flinging her last weapon straight for the man's head.

A rock swung into the path, but he miscalculated, and the flash of blue slammed into his temple, sending him sprawling.

Mai held her hand out patiently.

…

Huh.

–

Sokka sat up just in time to see Mai knock the guy out with what had to be the sloppiest boomerang technique he had ever seen.

He stood, unsteadily, and shook his head.

"It doesn't come back if you throw it wrong, you know."

Mai dropped her hand, trying, successfully, not to look disappointed.

"Is he unconscious?" he asked. Mai ambled over. After a few seconds, she kicked the man in the head.

"Yep."

"Oh good. Can we go now?"

"Wait."

Sokka turned to the source of the voice.

"Ah, nuts."

Lee waved his hand as Sokka readied his sword. The men behind him looked uncomfortable, unwilling to be there.

"Go. We have no use for this place, and this plan was a sad mistake by an arrogant fool. We have no wish to see any more violence."

Sokka swayed. "That's good."

"Wait." Mai jerked her thumb at the fallen earthbender. "What about him?"

Lee sighed. "My nephew is a... troubled young man. I did not wish it to come to this, but I fear he is doing our cause more harm than good. Bring him to justice, if you wish. He is no longer associated with us." Lee looked sad, but resigned.

Sokka nodded.

"Sounds good. But I assume you guys are all going to vanish now."

"But of course."

"Before you go, could I trouble you for a light? Like, a big one?"

–

Sokka and Mai sat in the torn up remains of the courtyard, trying not to look too hard at the green bonfire. Sokka was lounging unconcernedly on the unconscious body of their fallen adversary. Mai was resting on the ground.

"So. That was... confused."

Sokka stretched hugely.

"Welcome to my life. This is basically my job. Forget I said that. Seriously, forget I said that."

Mai ignored his pleas. "Sounds like fun."

Sokka sighed. Oh well, he had tried. "You'd think, huh?"

"No. I was being sarcastic."

"Oh. Well, you're right. Sort of. In general. I mean, there are days like this, where everything goes pretty much wrong, and there are days when it's ..simple, you know? I like to think all of this is making a difference, but there are always crazies like this guy, so..."

"Hmm."

"You're not listening, are you?"

"Hanging on every word."

Silence reigned for a while.

"So, you're off again, are you?"

"Hmm? Actually, I thought I might stick around Omashu for a while. Just for the novelty of sleeping in an actual bed for a while."

"You'll regret it. Omashu is where entertainment goes to die."

Sokka shrugged.

"I'm sure I'll find something to do."

"Hmm."

The fire crackled for a while.

"You know, since I'm in town for a while..."

"..."

"..."

"...since you're in for a while _what_?"

"Perhaps I could" fuck it, go for broke. Blaze of glory. "teach you how to use a boomerang. You know, so next time you have to you don't embarrass yourself."

Mai scowled.

"You sure you don't want to rephrase that?"

Sokka thought about it. "Nope."

Mai shrugged. "Sure, whatever. Thursday good?"

"I guess. It's not like my calender is full to bursting or anything."

"Okay."

"Cool."

Somewhere I the darkness, a cricket started chirping.

* * *

**I present to you the consequences of trying to stream-of-consciousness a good chunk of plot without time to edit. It's a trainwreck.**

**But enough warmup. These bits were really only to set the scene. Maikka actually begins tomorrow, and the Maikka train don't stop.  
**


	6. Snark

**Snark.**

–

Sokka was staring into the mirror, debating the merits of punching himself in the face.

The last month had been kind of crazy.

Okay, that needed a qualifier. The last month had been a _different_ kind of crazy to the one he had been used to. Which was good, if not as restful as he might have hoped.

Ever since the whole kidnapping thing, he'd felt that staying in Omashu would be a kind of a rest. A holiday. In some ways he had been right.

Of course, there had been the long debate between himself and Bumi, with Aang along as a kind of peacekeeper, on the pros and cons of not giving Sokka all the relevant information when sending him into danger zones. The debate had kind of failed to go anywhere, mainly due to the fact that Bumi had adopted an irritating habit of sort-of-agreeing with Sokka, while not actually saying as much or committing to anything. In any case, he had suggested that Sokka take rooms at the palace, for a holiday. There was to be a meeting soon, in light of the secessionists being rather more serious a problem than had previously been believed, but until then Sokka considered his time his own.

Which had been cool, until one essential truth had dawned on him.

Mai had been right.

Omashu was the dullest city on earth.

Aang seemed to not mind too much, but Aang was Aang- he could be enthralled for hours by a procession of ants. Sokka found himself wasting entire afternoons, lazing around, just doing _nothing_. He couldn't even think, it was so dull. There was nothing to think _about_.

And that was where Mai came into the picture. She was...

Sokka blinked.

He had come _this close_ to mentally referring to Mai as something to do on Thursday evenings.

This was not a safe thing to think, for any number of reasons. One of which being he wasn't entirely sure she couldn't read minds yet.

Hey, it was about as plausible as everything else he had seen.

What he _meant_ was teaching Mai how to throw a boomerang was something to do on Thursday evenings. That was exactly and all he meant.

Okay, that was a lie.

There had been... _something_ between them, lately. It had seemed to him, anyway. Well, the possibility of something, at least.

She interested him. That was what it boiled down to. If that was reciprocated in any way, he didn't know her well enough to tell.

But she had said yes, right? That had to count for something, right? He thought?

–

It had been last Thursday. Mai's third lesson. She was starting to get the hang of it, but there were still a lot of habits that she had got into that were no good when it came to boomerang...ing.

After an hour explaining and demonstrating the finer points of wrist technique, and how it related to the shoulder movement, Sokka felt that they had gone as far as they could that day.

Here goes.

"So, Mai," he said, getting her attention- no small feat in itself. "I was wondering"

"Again?"

"Yes, again, thank you. Anyway, I was going to go see this play on Saturday, and was wondering if you might like to come." There, that was hardly embarrassing at all.

Mai paused, evidently thinking.

"What play?"

"Don't know. Aang got free tickets, but he's not here at the moment- flash flood near the coast. But hey, it can't be _that_ bad if they were going to show the Avatar, right?"

Mai paused again. For about ten seconds.

"What day did you say again?"

"Saturday. Is that important?"

"Throw in dinner and you've got a deal."

Sokka had no time to marvel at her sudden acquiescence, only nod and agree and say Well then, until Saturday, and I'll pick you up at six thirty, is that alright?

Mai said, Six, and Sokka had agreed, because that was the easiest thing to do, and then he somehow made his way back to the palace and tried to figure out what he had gotten himself into.

–

Mai, on the other hand, had gone home with the quite terrible news that she had a prior commitment, and oh well it looked as though she wouldn't be able to attend Mother's stupid dinner party after all.

Dad had told her not to call it a stupid dinner party, at least not while Mother was in the house. Then he had asked where she was going. She had told him, after a while. It was simpler.

She found, to her muted horror, that Dad seemed to approve of Sokka.

She supposed she could try to not hold that against him.

–

This was why he needed to be punched in the face. He was _overthinking_ again. He needed to stop doing that.

It was only a _date_, for crying out loud. He shouldn't be so nervous.

Well, it was his first date with a girl who could quite easily kill him, if she got bored. And considered 'bored' her ground state of being.

Yeah, that was probably a reason to worry. But-

Overthinking again.

Okay. Focus. Ready?

Ready. Time to go.

–

Mai was assaulted by scents when she answered the door.

Flowers? Really?

"Hey," he said, with a smile.

"Right. Let's go." She took the bouquet, and plonked it on the side table unceremoniously before hurrying out the door.

"You know, the play isn't for half an hour, there's no rush."

"Yes there is. Move."

Good start.

–

Three minutes in, and Sokka was already off-balance.

"...Okay."

So he rushed. For whatever reason.

"Seriously, have you broken a vase or something?"

"I want to get good seats."

–

Mai was being uncooperative, Sokka thought. She would answer his questions, but so tersely that he quickly learned to stop asking them.

Not a positive sign, really.

–

Good. They were clear of the embassy. Hopefully, no one would recognise her and try to talk to her.

Mother's Stupid Dinner Party had been successfully avoided. Now all she had to do was survive an almost-certainly mind-numbingly dull play.

She supposed, after some consideration, that there might be worse ways to spend an evening.

–

A man dressed all in black paced onto the stage, and began speaking in a deep, melodramatic voice.

"An ancient legend of the Sun Warriors tells of a God, who descended to Earth from the Stars at the dawn of time, and became the father of the first Pumawolf-Man."

All of a sudden, the middle of the stage was bathed in light, and from the ground an amazingly cheap looking golden mask on a pedestal rose up.

The narrator continued, somehow making his voice even more booming and over the top.

"I speak to all humanity! With this mask! I shall _al_ways be with you. My _son!_ will be it's custodian. As will be the sons of his sons."

Sokka's brow furrowed. There was something not quite right about that line.

"Thr_ooough _the ages, he shall have the power of a man-God- the powers of a Pumawolf-Man! The Pumawolf-Man... ...The Pumawolf-Man."

Oh good grief, this was going to be painful.

–

Mai wasn't sure what she had been expecting- something art-house, probably, where everyone sat around discussing the artistic symbolism behind eating turds, or something.

Not this. Not this.

"Please, continue," the leather-clad bald man droned, clearly bored out of his mind, while his female assistant looked vapid. Mai consumed another handful of Fire Flakes.

This was shaping up to be _spectacular_.

–

Sokka was trying to claw his own face off.

So far, this was not going well.

And the play had only been going two minutes, too.

The breaking point came seconds later, when the bald, leather-clad man actually picked up and wore the big stupid mask.

"Your mind... and your will... belong to _me! Forever! _... Go now, and..." he seemed to pause, trying desperately to think of a way to finish that line, "..._obey!_"

"Yes! Find me a toupee! Otherwise it looks like I'll be wearing this mask all day."

Sokka couldn't help it. It just slipped out.

Next to him, Mai started choking on her fire flakes.

–

Two could play at that game.

"We'll make slaves of men with this mask. We'll dominate the earth. Who can stop us?"

"Right now, I'd say a sunny spell and a lack of bathing facilities. Leather may look good now, but you've got to sweat some time."

–

Sokka grinned. Perhaps the evening could be salvaged yet.

It became a game. The goal was to make the other person laugh, which put Sokka at a disadvantage, but he was holding his own.

And you had to take turns. That was very important. Otherwise, anarchy would just descend upon the whole proceedings.

Mai waited until a new character showed up, a weedy young man who Sokka suspected was the hero.

"_No. I get this way when I sense danger."_

"Or when I eat too much ice-cream."

Sokka's turn came later, when said hero was being pursued by the burly Sun Warrior.

"_You are the pumawolf-Man."_

"Really? This guy? 'Cause right now, I'd say the bald guy would be more convincing."

Mai retaliated in moments.

"_Tell me, are we meeting in a dream?" "I don't think so." "Then it's really true! I fell from the third floor!"_

"Directly on to my head! Again!"

"_I... am... the Pumawolf-Man!"_

"Do- do you buy that? Any of you? Guys? Hey, guys, stop laughing and take me seriously!"

"_I don't know anything, I swear! Everyone who goes there doesn't talk. They can't remember anything. They can't remember anything, I swear!"_

"Even that they were in this play? It's going to be even harder rooting for the Pumawolf-Man now that we know his nemesis is a humanitarian."

"_Shoot him down!"_

"No, you fools! Shoot the wires attached to his belt!"

"The infinite forces of Gods from the heavens- no match for a bald head, a shiny coat, and a funny mask. Wow."

"_You can no longer jump into space!"_

"...He could do that? Seriously, that sounds a lot more interesting than anything we've seen so far."

"_Listen, I want you to hear my epitaph. He wasn't much in his life, either as a man or a Pumawolf-man, and now he's worth absolutely nothing."_

"Finally, he gets it."

"_That is not true. You are a worthy man."_

"Alright, now try it again with a straight face."

"_Ten minutes with no life! Hold your breath, your heartbeat can slow down..."_

"Now, I put this bag over your head. And now I put my hands around your neck."

–

Needless to say, they weren't let back in after the intermission.

The game ended in a tie.

–

"Well, that was fun," Sokka commented, as they made their way down the street. "Dinner?"

"It was part of the deal," Mai reminded him.

She seemed to have lightened up.

Score one for Sokka, then. Even if that had been completely accidental.

–

"You know, I had a really great time tonight."

"Hmm?"

"That was your line, you know."

"H_mm._"

They were stumbling home. Both had indulged in drink a little. Mai possibly a little more than Sokka, although he was really having trouble telling. It could, as he was beginning to realise, just as easily be Mai in a funny mood.

She was leaning on him.

He was doing his best not to grin like a complete moron.

Soon, they were standing outside the embassy, which Sokka guessed meant the end of the evening.

"Alright, it's my last chance to ask, so tell me. Did you have a good time?"

Mai turned to face him, impassive and serious, as though she were weighing up options.

Then she grabbed him by his lapels and kissed him. Hard.

It took Sokka half a millisecond to comprehend what was happening, and by that time Mai's tongue had found the off switch to his brain, and the best he could do was try to keep up.

Several extremely gratifying seconds later, and Mai broke contact.

"On balance, I'd say, yeah, I had fun." She was trying to be a stone again, but couldn't prevent the corners of her mouth turning up.

"Cool," Sokka managed.

"But I think you'd better put a little more forethought into it next time." And with that, she was moving, heading to the house.

"Forethought? I can do that."

A corner of Sokka's brain was giggling all the way home.

–

_**Who **_**was cunning enough to get an idea that required him to watch his favourite MST3K episode for 'research'? ****_Phil_, that's who.**

**Also, I hope you like sappy romance and angst, 'cause that's pretty much all I got. I was going to be more off-the-wall, but I'd say Loopy777 has cornered the market there.**

**Seriously, if by some mad coincidence you're reading this but not "Ember Island Lighthouse", I am going to slap the stupid right out of you. Seriously. I have a bat and everything.  
**


	7. Not Here

**Not Here.**

–-

"Mai. I have to leave."

Mai's head swivelled lazily, coming to rest on Sokka.

"Oh? Why?"

"There's something going on in this town, out West. No one's really sure what's what, but they want me to investigate."

"What's going on there?"

Sokka shrugged, dislodging Mai a little.

"It's just weird, apparently. People disappearing, no one in the town comes out to trade any more. Might be a cult or something. Anyway, they want me go have a look-see, and they've assigned me a partner."

Mai stirred at this.

"Any idea who?"

"Nope. I suggested you come along, but that didn't go over all that well. Grandpa doesn't like anyone he doesn't know, and Jeong-Jeong backed him up."

"It was sweet of you to try, though. I am seriously cut up that I won't have the opportunity to suffer great discomfort just to help of a bunch of old men feel important."

"...You know, I can't even tell what you're trying to tell me by that."

"What makes you think I'm trying to tell you anything?"

"Besides, if it was on the behalf of a bunch of old men, I would have quit by now. We're doing good work- it's sort of like what Aang is doing, except without the PR. Besides, when people see a Water Tribes guy stick up for the Fire Nation when they need it, it sticks in the mind some."

"I wasn't really listening there, but I'll have you know there was a joke in there, and if I were feeling more energetic I would have made it."

"You know, people think you're mature. It's amazing."

"Really? Who?"

"Aang. Maybe Toph. I used to."

"It's amazing what people think when you don't talk much."

"I wouldn't know."

"I figured that out myself, you know. So, when are you going?"

"Tomorrow. First light."

"Oh."

"I know. I'm not looking forward to it, you know."

"You could have mentioned this earlier."

"I was going to. But I got distracted."

"Yeah."

A few realities of time management dawned on Mai, as they had done on Sokka a few minutes ago.

"You're leaving now, aren't you?"

"I don't want to."

"Good. How long are you going for?"

"Three days. They're being careful now- all we're doing is going there for two evenings, looking around, and leaving."

"I see."

"But if I'm going to make the trip in three days, I have to get up early."

"I guessed as much."

"Cool. So... do you have any idea where my shirt is?"

Mai, with not a little difficulty, raised her head a whole six inches and peered around the dim room.

"Oh, wait, there it is. ...How did it get up there?"

–-

This wasn't so bad. After all, now she got a little more alone time.

Sokka wasn't bad- he was certainly entertaining- but he got... clingy, sometimes.

She supposed that was her fault- at first, for some reason that she couldn't quite put her finger on- she had indulged him, and he was far too at ease around her now.

She might need to do something about that at some point. She still had her barriers, you know.

–-

Wow.

She'd forgotten quite how dull her life was, in the last month-and-a-half.

"Mai! Mai!"

She sighed.

"What is it, Tom-Tom?"

"Play ball!"

"No."

–-

He should be back some time today.

Not that she was waiting, in particular, but there really wasn't much else to do.

"Play ball?"

"No."

--

He was a day late.

Perhaps this was a good thing. It would give her an excuse to be irritated with him, and re-establish a few boundaries.

Yes. That was what she would do.

--

Two days now.

She was babysitting.

"...Play ball?"

She sighed.

"Fine. How does one play ball?"

Tom-Tom beamed, and threw a red ball at Mai. She caught it.

"That's all? How droll."

She threw it back.

"Ow!"

Tom-Tom started crying.

Mai sighed, and covered her ears.

--

Three days late.

It was starting to irk her how little there seemed to be to do around here. It was actually worse than she remembered.

Dad had told her three times to stop walking around the house so much.

Well, she wouldn't if there was something to do. It was really his fault for having such a boring house.

--

Four days. It had been a week since he left.

Okay, this was getting ridiculous.

Fortunately, she knew who to talk to. At. Whatever.

"Mai! Play ba-"

"No. I have to go out now."

"Oh."

--

Mai stalked to the palace, ignoring any signs that thanked her for getting appointments, and breezing past security guards by claiming diplomatic immunity from paperwork. It was a trick she had seen Dad pull a couple of times. Generally he just slipped away while everyone tried to work out if diplomatic immunity worked that way.

Outside the throne room, she paused.

Someone else was already in there, and they were shouting.

"_Four days, old man. Four days with no word. Where are they?"_

It looked like someone was busy stealing her thunder.

"We don't know."

"_Why _not_?"_

Wow, this guy was _pissed_.

"_Enough games. Tell me where they are, Bumi. I will go myself."_

"Do you think that is wise? To go alone? Do you have any plan at all?"

"_I-"_

Mai walked in.

Bumi was sitting on his throne, being harassed by a tall young man with a bow.

"Oh, Mai! How you doing?"

"I do have ears, you know."

"Oh." Bumi looked comically disappointed. But then Mai always found the disappointment of others amusing. "I was hoping you might pretend."

"Look, I just want to know what's going on," Mai reasoned. "Who is this guy?"

"Oh, haven't you been introduced? Mai, meet Longshot. Longshot, Mai."

The man bowed, stiffly. He still radiated frustrated anger.

"So, I guess this is about Sokka and his little trip," Mai said.

"You guessed right. I must say, that was impressive, if you really were guessing."

Mai groaned. She had forgotten what Bumi was like.

"Look, we all know where this is going, so let's cut to the chase. You tell me where Sokka has gone, and I don't put a knife through some semi-vital organ."

Bumi considered her words.

"Deal."

--

Mai headed for the stables. The Avatar was usually there at this time of day, she had been told.

The bowman was following her. So far, he hadn't said a word.

Well, that was fine with her.

Aha. There he was. With his usual menagerie.

"Avatar."

He looked up, surprised.

"Mai! ...Is there a problem?"

"Saddle up. We're going on a trip to," she checked the name she had been given "a place called 'Jijing-Ling'. Sounds cheery."

**--**

**This is actually a setup to a short fic I plan to write at some point, in case that wasn't already obvious. I'd had the idea swilling around for a while, and now it's solidified. As a Maikka, apparently, which wasn't something that was in the original script, but I'm not complaining. No, I won't be writing it before I finish Gentlemen. Mainly because I actually want to finish Gentlemen.**

**Anyway, the tentative title is 108 Battles. Probably to be put up sometime around Christmas.**

**Advertising!**


	8. Return

**Return.**

–-

Sokka walked down the road, enjoying the afternoon sunshine.

That had gone pretty well, all things considered. He hadn't even had to kill anybody, which had been nice.

It had been his first mission since Jijing-Ling. There had been over a month in between.

Mai hadn't wanted him to go. He could tell because she got even more sarcastic than usual.

But he was fine now, and he'd needed to get back in the saddle at some point, anyway.

After Jijing-Ling, things had been... strained, for a little while. Of course. But they'd got past that, mostly by deciding not to care. Mai was cool like that.

She had been on his mind a lot. She intruded on his thoughts when he was trying to concentrate on other things. This was precedented.

That was the problem.

The precedent had kicked him in the teeth.

Second time around, he had actively suppressed the feeling, unwilling to commit a second time. That had worked, and also backfired spectacularly.

Third time lucky?

Maybe.

–-

He had said he was going to be back today. Perhaps he would actually keep to that, and she wouldn't end up having to rescue him.

Although she had enjoyed getting out of the house. But his last two missions had proved themselves almost disasters, and would have probably gotten him killed, had Mai not been there both times. You'd think he'd learn by now.

He was too stubborn for his own good, really. It was very irritating.

–-

He was at a kind of point of no return, he realised. Now, if he so chose, he could probably, if he were careful about it, break things off with Mai without too much fallout for either of them. But he was running out of time for that to be viable. He was starting to fall, and hard.

Mai was different to Yue in almost every way imaginable. But that meant she was certainly less than fragile.

But not indestructible.

But that was stupid. You had to take some chances.

Was he really ready for this? Things were getting serious, and he needed to talk to her about this. About a lot of things, really.

–-

Mai was trying not to think about what that girl had said. It was harder than she had anticipated.

She... _liked_ Sokka. Quite a lot, actually.

This was not normal.

She thought he was nice to look at. She thought he was actually quite funny, if a little strange. But it was worse than that.

She was starting to like his _personality_. She found something endearing in his bizarre mix of determination and pragmatism, in his mad crusade to make the world a better place one broken limb at a time, even in the way he didn't seem to mind that half his plans featured him getting severely injured at some point.

That last one was aggravating, actually, and altogether too insecurely macho for her tastes. She'd have to take him to task over that one.

There. That was it. She was considering trying to improve him, which meant that she was considering _keeping_ him.

This wasn't looking good. It was _Sokka_, for crying out loud.

And then there was the other problem.

He was Zuko's brother-in-law.

Was that a problem? Did _he_ think it would be a problem? Did she?

Mai considered the question carefully.

"Fuck it."

She wasn't getting anywhere. She needed to talk to him.

–-

"Mai."

"We need to talk."

"I know. ...You mind if I sit down first? I've been walking pretty much all day."

"Wasn't Aang supposed to fly you back?"

"He got called away. You know how it is."

"Yes. I do."

"We need to talk about that too, huh?"

"Frankly, I think we need to sit down and sort this whole thing out. It's getting tangled."

"Heh. Mind if I go first?"

"Knock yourself out."

"Mai... this is harder than it looks... Mai. I'm a little worried about the way our relationship is developing."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. By which I mean, I like you. A lot."

"And this worries you."

"Well duh. It's a worrying thought."

"Look, I know about your issues regarding your first girlfriend. I got that."

"...I'm not gonna ask how, right now, since that'll just get us off topic and distract me, but yeah. Maybe I'm a little concerned that I'll put too much into this and then for one reason or another you'll just vanish."

"You'll get over it. If it happens."

"Maybe. Okay, your turn. I figure we might as well get everything said in one go."

"Very pragmatic. Okay. I... enjoy your company. You keep me entertained. But if we take this any further, people are going to start to notice."

"..._You're _worried about what other people think?"

"No. I just wonder what your friends might think, in light of... everything."

"...Fuck them. Seriously. I really don't care."

"Heartening, and it's a sentiment I can get behind."

"Mai, I think we might be overthinking this a little. We're worrying too much. Look, simple question- do you want to make a real go of this?"

"...Yes."

"I do too. So we just see where it goes. If in a year's time we hate each other's guts, well, we at least had fun at the time."

"So you're saying we should just keep going as things are?"

"...No. I think we could stand to change something."

He told her his idea.

"What about your puppetmasters?"

"It's pretty much what I was doing before I came here. They won't complain."

"And it means I'll be around to rescue when you inevitably get in over your head."

"I wasn't going to put it like that, but yeah."

"Plus we get the hell out of here. That's definitely in it's favour."

–-

They left Omashu within a week.

**--**

**Nothing to see here, folks. Just some uninspired, rushed bridging.**


	9. Fashion

**Fashion.**

--

"...wh- wh timzit?"

"...hnn?"

"time. Wossa time?"

"...sun's up."

"Cool."

"...Looks like a nice day out there."

"Hmm."

"Might be eleven."

"Cool."

"...You want to get up?"

"Not really."

"Fair enough."

"Cool."

"But if you don't stop hogging the covers I swear, I will stab you in the liver."

--

"Do you _really _need a seven-course breakfast?"

"Mai, it's practically lunchtime. I'm at least a meal and a half behind."

"That logic is bad enough, but it'll only get worse if you throw up. Actually, that's very nearly a universal truth. I think I shall have to write that down somewhere."

"You... do that..."

"Is there a problem?"

"Mai. They have stewed sea prunes. This is about as far away from a problem as we could ever ever get."

"Is that- ugh! Is that even food, or did they just throw some shellfish in a pot and leave them to decompose?"

"Mai. Hand me my spoon."

"...Do you two need some alone time?"

--

"Well, the traditional way of solving those kinds of disputes back in the South Pole would be trial by combat, but there hasn't been one of those on record in about fifty years. Dad had the idea that if neither party was willing to come to a settlement, he'd make them do chores."

"...Really. That sounds... moronic."

"I mean, like, reinforcing the ramparts all day and most of the night, that sort of thing. Usually until one of them cracked and agreed to a compromise."

"...Okay, that's just creatively tyrannical."

"You've never met Dad, have you? We'll have to go down there some time."

"Can't he come to us? I don't have any winter clothing. Well, I have winter clothing, but it's for Fire Nation winters."

"Which are the wimpiest winters in the entire world."

"Which are exactly as a winter should be."

"Winter isn't winter until it's pitch black all day and if you take your glove off, your fingers start dropping off. And the leopard-seals burst through the thin ice, devouring the unwary. And when things go bad and food stores get low, everyone has to eat limpets."

"You say 'winter', I say 'vision of Hell'. We all have our differences. I suppose it's my education."

"You'll see, some day. And your education is completely useless."

"I look forward to it. Really. I do. And I hate to agree with you, as you well know, but I'll concede that one."

"Anyway, Dad can't leave, because he's Chief, and as such has kind of a full schedule."

"Can't he just learn to delegate?"

"Nope. We've all been very hands-on in my family."

"By which you mean interfering."

"Yep, pretty much."

--

"Why are we here?"

"I need to check to see if there are any letters for me."

"But why do you have to meet in a dive like this?"

"Think about it. Where's the last place you'd check for an organisation of wise and enlightened people?"

"The bottom of the sea. Or the heart of a volcano. Or a point three hundred feet in the air."

"You're hilarious."

"I try my best."

"The patron Spirit of Comedy is weeping for the death of his craft."

"Send my condolences."

"I don't even know what we're talking about any more."

"...You know what? I'm going to let that pass. I'm not going to say a thing."

"Awesome. Ah, there he is."

--

"So, there's nothing that I immediately have to do, it's a nice day, and I think it's time we found some entertainment. What do you want to do?"

"..."

"Mai?"

"I'm thinking. How about... finding the craziest looking old man we can find, and heckling him?"

"We did that yesterday. Remember? The hobo that insisted that the Avatar was a myth, and Admiral Zhao was going to lead an armada of sky bison from the North Pole in a grand crusade to eradicate the sinners?"

"Oh yeah. He was cool."

"He was violently insane. And I didn't like the way he was staring at me the whole time. It was creepy. I was thinking we could go shopping."

"Fine. If you want to be pedestrian."

--

"Well, that was fun."

"..."

"Mai? Is there something wrong?"

"_Wrong_? You spent two hours looking at _shoes_!"

"Well, I wanted to get a new pair."

"You didn't even_ buy_ any!"

"Well, they didn't have any I wanted."

"I cannot believe you did that. That was my entire afternoon."

"Oh that's not true. We looked at that weapon shop."

"If you could call it a shop. It was pathetic."

"They had thirty different kinds of knife."

"Thirty terrible kinds of knife."

"Baby, why you got to be like that?"

"Don't you 'baby' me. I will hurt you."

"Besides, you did buy something."

"What? No I didn't."

"Yes you did."

"No, I really didn't."

"Oh? Well, what's in that bag, then?"

"What ba- hey! Get off!"

"Ha! And it's... dark chocolate."

"Something wrong with dark chocolate?"

"Absolutely nothing. On that note, how's about we get dinner?"

--

"Mai. We have a problem."

"What?"

"We don't technically have enough money to pay for dinner. We've pretty much run through all I took with me."

"...I thought you were given a living wage."

"Yeah. Jeong-Jeong was the one to decide how much that needed to be."

"I see. So it's the usual plan?"

"Run away to the nearest person we can sponge off? Sounds like it. Who's closest?"

"...Actually, we could just go and see Iroh. Maybe explain to him the financial realities of this lifestyle."

"Guilt trip him? I like the way you think. But this doesn't- ow!"

"Shut up, Sokka."

"You _kicked_ me! Why did you kick me?"

"Because you're attracting the attention of the waiter."

"Crap."

"Yeah. Don't worry, he's moved on. So, what's the plan?"

"...Okay, does the window open enough?"

"Looks like it."

"Right. I'm going to the bathroom now. Wait three seconds, then jump out the window. Whoever gets back to the room first should get started on packing. We'll head to Ba Sing Se."

"Alright. I was getting tired of this place, anyway."

--

"There you are. I was getting bored."

"Sorry to keep you waiting. One of the waiters was pretty tenacious."

"Ugh. Don't you come near me with that breath."

"Sorry."

"That's what you get for having garlic."

--

**I was in a funny mood.**


	10. Travelling

**Travelling.**

--

"I'm going out. Be back in a month or so, bye."

Home had gotten boring again. Actually, pretty much everything was boring nowadays. Some days she nearly regretted participating in the biggest single event of her life- of _anyone's_ life- when she was so young. She wouldn't trade those days for anything, even the worst of them, but the rest of her life was just... denouement.

She really shouldn't be complaining about how stressful her life wasn't, but she hated to be idle.

So that was why she was going to Omashu. Sokka was, to the best of her knowledge, living there these days, and Aang had been around there lately. She hadn't seen either of them for the better part of a year.

Stupid Katara. She just had to grow up, didn't she?

It _had_ been better when they were children.

She amended that. It had been better when they had _all_ been children. She was still a year shy of technical adulthood.

But it had been better, no matter how you constructed the sentence. No one had got married, and while Aang had to do the impossible, at least no one was asking him to do everything.

Now everyone was, at any given time, at least two hundred miles from at least three of the others.

This was not an acceptable equation. So she was going to unbalance it.

--

It took nearly a week to get to Omashu.

When she got there, she was given mildly unwelcome news.

"I am sorry, Toph, but they left nearly three weeks ago. They were headed North," Bumi explained, as if he didn't have anything more important to do.

"North. Huh."

Wait a moment.

"_They_?"

--

Mai and Sokka? Really?

It had taken Toph a while to get her mind around that, not least because it took her almost ten minutes to even remember which one Mai was supposed to be. At first she'd thought it might be that schoolgirl Aang had danced with back in the Fire Nation, which had put a whole different spin on things.

Oh yeah, Zuko's ex. Well, wasn't that a strange turn of events.

--

Well, they weren't exactly making it hard to follow them. They seemed hell-bent on leaving a trail of extremely petty devastation across the Earth Kingdom, a veritable mini-Ozai of unpaid restaurant bills, utterly one-sided bar fights, and stolen pillows.

To be fair, they had mailed the pillow back later.

After a couple of weeks making inquiries- a dull and time-consuming process- she found that the pair had turned sharply West, and moved a lot faster than they had before.

This also meant that they stopped being so noticeable, and Toph quickly lost the trail.

One evening, she overheard two people discussing a rumour. Apparently, a warrior had appeared out West, challenging anyone he came across.

A warrior wielding a black sword.

Well, at least Toph knew why they had come out this way.

--

She caught up to them a week later.

She felt them before she heard them, walking side by side down the road. But she heard them soon enough.

"Sokka, we've been doing this for hours now. Can we stop? I don't think he's going to show."

She felt rather than heard his sigh.

"I guess you're right. I mean, after all _hiyah!_"

The boomerang bounced harmlessly off the wall of earth.

"Toph?"

"Who were you expecting?"

"...You know, I don't think you can really use that one in this situation, since I was pretty obviously not expecting you. But how've you been?"

"Eh, alright, I guess. You know how it is."

"To live the life of the idle rich? Can't say I do. Mai, you know what the idle rich do, right?"

"Nothing."

"Well, there you have it. Come on, let's get back to the inn."

They fell into step. Back in sync in moments, it was like the last five years just melted away, and they were on the road, telling idiotic jokes, laughing at other people's expense, constantly trying to get the better of one another. She couldn't believe how much she had missed this.

It was only afterwards that Toph noticed Mai had become part of the background.

--

They had rented a room for her at the inn, and invited her to join them on their search in the morning.

Well, Sokka had. Mai still hadn't said a word to her.

--

Their plan, once Sokka had explained it to her, had seemed sensible, and simple. Let it be known that they were looking for the guy with the black sword, walk around in the area he was known to be, wait for him to intercept them, and get the sword back, by whatever means seemed easiest.

It was apparently a lot easier on Sokka's conscience when he had heard that the guy was supposed to be a total jerk.

--

It had been a long three days. Three days of walking around in the baking sun. During that time, she was fairly certain she had heard Mai say a total of maybe twenty words. Admittedly, she wasn't around Toph all the time, so maybe she got all her talking done at night.

But it had been great seeing Sokka again, and he had made the three days of walking seem fun.

But now they were at an end, because the guy had shown up.

She knew it was the sword from the moment he had got within a mile. No other metal was quite the same, and she had her bracelet to compare it to. It was him.

"Great."

"Why? Intimidating?"

"A little."

"So! You are the ones who are looking for me."

Sokka stepped forward.

"You've got my sword, buddy. I'd appreciate it if you gave it back."

"Hmm. No."

Sokka sighed. "Oh well, I tried. Now I'm afraid I'm going to have to kick your ass."

"Ha!" The man barked, so harshly that the exhaled punch of air shuddered throughout his body. "Well, if it is a fight you desire, you shall have it!"

Sokka drew his blade, pacing forward.

"Seriously, you're just going to embarrass yourself. Tell you what, you give me the sword, I'll give you a couple really impressive scars, you make up an interesting story, and you'll make a lifetime's worth of free drinks."

"You talk a good fight, little man."

"That's it? No rider? Just a compliment? Man, you suck at this."

The two men padded around each other, Sokka's mindless banter distracting from the stance he was preparing.

"I gotta say, I understand man. I mean, I've seen your mom, and it's a testament to your spirit that you even learned to _talk_."

"Enough! You die now!"

The man swung wildly, but Sokka was ready, stepping back and deflecting the wild charge with ease. Finding his footing, he swung around, the arc of his blade aiming straight for his opponent's neck.

The swords met with a punishing _clang_, and Mai's heart spiked. Grinning, the man used his greater height and mass to lean over Sokka, who was slowly being pushed back.

Toph could feel his sword straining to keep its edge. Unconsciously, she stabilised the ground beneath his feet.

Then the man jerked backwards, twisting his sword over his head, and swinging two handed towards Sokka's head but his blade tore upwards, faster than Toph could hope to follow, and there was a scream of steel and Sokka was left with half a sword.

Mai jerked forward and a knife was in her hand in moments.

"_No_," Toph hissed.

Mai ignored her, and threw, but the blade went wide and-

Sokka's head jerked back in a spray of blood.

Mai's heart went haywire, and she began to move forwards, but Toph forced herself to ignore that and _feel_.

Sokka's heart, beating fast, but steady, pumping blood. A cut on his face, over his left eye. Long, but shallow. Didn't touch bone, which was a miracle in itself. Non-fatal, not even a life-threatening injury, as long as it got treated. He was fine. Fine.

Except now there was blood streaming down his face and effectively blind in one eye and there was a maniac with a sword preparing to split his skull in two-

Toph could see it coming. Sokka's stance was _eloquent_. She could feel his muscles bunching, could practically hear the power building up, rushing from the earth.

Mai slowed. She could see it too.

Oh, this was going to hurt.

Sokka unwound, one muscle at a time, stacking up and accelerating and building up the kind of momentum normally reserved for rampaging elephant-bulls and unloading it all right into the man's poor defenceless temple.

Toph winced in sympathy- she felt that one. The punch was beyond textbook- it was the trendsetter. It was as if the greatest artist in the history of the human race had decided to branch out into the medium of _pain_, and his canvas was that guy's unwitting and unprepared face.

There was a pause, both combatants freezing, to better admire the majesty of that single blow, and then the man crumpled like a paper bag caught in the rain.

Sokka exhaled for a moment, flexing and unflexing his hand.

Then he turned around.

"Feel free to step in _any time_, guys."

Toph shrugged. "Didn't want to get in the way."

"We thought you wanted to be macho and duel the guy. You were taunting him, and so forth. Seemed like a guy thing."

"Yeah, I was trying to distract him, you know. So one of you could hit him in the back of the head."

Mai had moved up to Sokka, and was peering intently at his wound.

"That's going to scar. Hold still." She dabbed at the blood with a cloth, cleaning his face. "We should get that looked at when we get back in town."

"You worry too much."

"That's because I have to do your worrying for you, as well. It's very thoughtless of you."

"Hey, I've done alright so far."

"You've survived long enough to get to twenty-one. That's not actually a great feat, you know. Most people manage that."

Now it was Toph that felt left out.

Sokka bent down, and picked up his sword, reunited at last. He held it with the same disbelieving care that most people reserved for their first-born babies.

"Oh, look at that. He hasn't even _tried_ to keep it clean. Oh, this will not do at all."

--

They were back at the inn. Sokka had been patched up by the local physician, who had apparently done terrible things to his face with a pot of green stuff, and put a bandage over his eye. He had then commandeered polish, a cloth, a wire brush, and a whole bunch of other things that Toph couldn't identify, and vanished into his and Mai's room.

He had been in there for hours now. Mai and Toph were lounging in the lounge. They were the only people there.

Conversation had yet to arrive. Perhaps it felt uncomfortable.

Well, Toph couldn't stand the silence any longer.

"So... you and Sokka, huh?"

"M-hmm."

"How's that working out for you?"

Mai shifted slightly.

"Alright, I suppose. He's entertaining. And it beats sitting around at home all day."

"Heh. So, how'd you two meet?"

Mai shifted again.

"Earth Kingdom. I chased him down and tried to kill him. You weren't there at that point."

"I meant afterwards."

"How can you first meet twice?"

"Whatever." Toph shook her head. "Look, I just want to make sure I've got a few things straight. I was trying to be tactful, but I'm not gonna bother now. Look, you like Sokka, right?"

"I am dating the guy."

Toph took that as a yes.

"Good. So it's only fair to tell you that if you hurt him, and you're ever within a hundred miles of any of us again, it will not go well."

Mai paused, taking this in.

"Why can't we just sort out any petty revenges between ourselves?"

"Sokka's too chivalrous. It's a failing of his."

"Chivalrous."

"Yeah, you know, code of honour stuff."

"Toph, just this morning he suggested I should have knifed a man in the back of the head while he was distracted by honourable single combat."

"Yeah, but to be fair, he was really bad at hinting."

--

**I am of the humble opinion that Mai and Sokka would badly misunderstand the term "destructive relationship". Normally, other people's property is rarely involved.**

**Also real conclusions are bourgeois nonsense and should be shunned.**

**Also I read too much Seanbaby.  
**


	11. Mortal

**Mortal.**

–-

"Remind me again how this keeps happening?"

Mai risked a glance out from behind their makeshift and oh-so inadequate cover while she thought of an appropriate answer.

"Because our lives, despite all our efforts to the contrary, are decidedly wacky?"

"No, wacky is like... like... like that time the chicken farmer insisted that you were his great-aunt. Or when we were run out of that really conservative and slightly inbred town in the middle of the night when they figured out we weren't married, and we stole that cart from the bakery, except it turned out that there was some hobo taking a nap in the back, and he'd taken off his pants, and then you kicked him in the junk because you thought he was flashing you. Or that time we went around catching ghosts."

Mai turned to look at her boyfriend.

"One, I thought we agreed never to discuss that night again. And two, when did we catch ghosts?"

Sokka frowned. "That might have been a dream. Anyway, this is not wacky. This is" he looked up from behind the fallen masonry, and ducked before a fireball came within inches of removing his face "dangerous, and possibly dramatic."

"Our lives tend to be filled with that, too."

"True, but I kind of meant specifics. Did you catch what these guys were screaming about?"

"I think they might be secessionists."

"Oh great. You know, I really think they need a catchier name. 'Secessionists' tends to kind of trip over itself a lot, as a word."

"I'm sure that's _right_ at the top of their agenda. You know, right after inciting the colonies to rise up in popular revolution and getting everyone to agree that they should be allowed to form their own country."

"Neither of which will happen if everyone has to spend five minutes sorting out the knots in their vocal chords every time they say 'secessionists'. It derails things a bit."

"Hello!" a voice boomed, rudely interrupting their lively debate. "You are being outnumbered! Perhaps you will be surrendering now, yes?" The man talked as if he had once read a book on etiquette, but had badly misunderstood the chapter on enunciation while doing something else at the same time. Like getting repeatedly punched in the brain.

"Well?" Mai murmured.

"We've got a few seconds. This guy sounds talkative. If you can keep his friends distracted, I can probably get to him. Okay? Let's go."

With nothing more than a nod, he was turning and preparing to vault the overturned cart. Mai barely stood and chose her targets in time.

Five men scattered around the town square. Try not to kill anyone.

The first knife flew as the man by the fountain punched forwards, and _thunk_ed into his shoulder, sending him spinning out of control, and his blast wildly into the air. Sokka ran on, barely bothering to duck the flames.

The second span towards the man with the bow, severing his string as he prepared to fire, whipping the tightly wound bowstring into his face.

Sokka had got ten paces. The ringleader- a big man with a big moustache- was starting to look worried.

The third knife twirled almost lazily, and connected with the palm of the second firebender. Another knife neatly parted his hair, and that was all the incentive he needed to turn tail.

Sokka was nearly upon the man now.

The fourth knife-

Where was the fourth man? Where was he?

Mai's eyes flicked wildly around the square. Not on any roofs, not in the open, not in a window, but she could have _sworn _there was another man somewhere.

Sokka collided with his target.

Where _was _he? Behind a tree? Had he fled?

Sokka seemed to be winning. Mai forced herself to scan the surroundings, filtering out the sounds of combat.

She started to wonder if the other man had been a miscount on her part. It happened, from time to time.

Sokka had won. His foot was planted on his opponent's chest, and he was taking the moment to gloat.

"Yeah, not so tough now, are you, yes? Will you be doing the surrendering now?"

_There he was._

The glint of an arrow from the shadows of an alleyway. Sokka, totally unaware.

It was too late to do anything but shout, and by then the arrow was loosed.

"_Sokka!" _nonononononononono and her heart was in her throat and her blood had frozen and she was leaping, flinging wildly but she'd picked the wrong target _stupid_ and the knife was spinning for the man and it was too late because the arrow was already flying.

She imagined she could see Sokka's eyes widen as he dived to the side.

–-

Mai didn't say anything as they made their way back to the room that they had rented. Sokka didn't see anything particularly wrong with this- Mai was like that at times. When she felt like it, she could talk until mountains wore down just to escape her acerbic tongue. And at other times, it was impossible to get more than monosyllables out of her. Just part and parcel of her personality.

He didn't think something was wrong until he closed the door on their room, and suddenly she was clutching at him, arms wrapped tight around his back, head buried in the nape of his neck.

"Mai? Is... something wrong?"

"You could have _died_, Sokka," she muttered angrily into his shoulder, as if something was his fault.

Huh?

"Hey, I was careful," he said, as soothingly as he could. One hand was placed lightly on the back of her head, the other on her upper back.

Mai didn't take well to being soothed. She jerked her head back, until she was glaring at him, eyes locked on his, transmitting her disapproval.

"You're _never_ careful. You were so busy crowing over that guy you were almost _killed_."

"Hey, you warned me in time, didn't you? I'm okay," Sokka tried, unsure as to what Mai was getting at.

"Sokka, I didn't see him until he'd already shot at you. I'm not perfect, Sokka, and I'm not going to be able to keep you safe," she growled.

"Mai, I don't know what you want me to say."

"Shut up. Just... shut up, okay?" she asked, collapsing into him again.

"Okay."

They didn't move for a long time.

–-

Mai didn't say anything for the rest of the afternoon. She said nothing all dinner more engaging than 'pass the salt', and try as he might Sokka just couldn't build a conversation around that.

–-

When Sokka emerged from the bathroom, Mai was sitting on a chair in their small room, apparently deep in thought.

Sokka sat heavily on the bed.

This looked like it was going to be a long evening. An evening of awkward silence and Mai totally ignoring him.

Sokka was not going to take this.

"Alright, Mai, I have thought about everything, and have decided to dedicate the rest of my life to building a suit of armour that is totally impervious to absolutely everything. Should take about eighty years or so."

Mai didn't even acknowledge that he had spoken. Sokka was not put off in the slightest.

"Mai, look, neither of us are perfect, no matter what we do there's going to be a chance that one of us is going to get hurt. Believe me, I know that. But there's always going to be a _chance_ in pretty much anything we do. I mean, today was hardly _special_, I don't see why you're freaking out over this. We take down worse than that about once a month, and-"

"Don't finish that thought. I know you're only trying to help, but if you finish that sentence I am going to hurt you."

"Fine. So what do you want me to do?"

Mai sighed, and slumped a little.

"Distract me. I'll get over this, and you're right, it doesn't do much good to be worrying over it, but it was just... an unpleasant reminder."

Normally, such a frank declaration of Mai's regard for him would have set him grinning for hours, but Sokka had no time for that. He had a mission.

Distract Mai from her own morbidity. Not easy, but if he were to allow a moment of vanity, there were none better suited to the task than he.

Sure, he might die tomorrow. _She_ might (don't think about it). But it didn't do any good to dwell on it, because tomorrow was going to come anyway. The only thing to do was make it worth it at the time.

–-

**Today is a good day for angst, it seems. Well, 'good' is entirely subjective. Today is a day for posting angst. Let's leave it at that.  
**


	12. Dinner

**Dinner.**

–-

"You think you're doing me a favour. You don't have to say anything, I can tell. You're thinking 'deep down, she really appreciates this'. Or maybe 'she doesn't like it now, but it's important for her, and she'll feel better for it afterwards'. Well, you're wrong. Also you have bad hair."

Sokka considered this.

"I am willing to pretend, for the good of all of us, that I didn't hear anything just then."

"I'm serious, Sokka. I also think that seal jerky tastes of the way feet smell, and your total inability to draw the human face is not endearing, just irritating. I am telling you these things so you know I am serious when I say I would rather subsist on cured meats and look at a gallery of your abortive drawings for the rest of the week than go to dinner with my parents. I have not yet found a way to incorporate your hair into this scenario in a way that doesn't make me want to run screaming."

"I am also ignoring that, since you are clearly not in your right mind. But it won't be _that_ bad."

"Speak for yourself. You're not going."

"I'd be intruding."

"No, you'd be interesting. I know you were never schooled, but I'd have thought you'd know the difference between the two words by now."

"Interesting?"

"Sokka, it's _dinner with my parents_. Do you know why I agreed to go out with you in the first place? To avoid dinner with my parents. Now perhaps you can understand how much I am not looking forward to this."

"Ah, come on, how bad can it be?"

"Agh! Thank you Sokka, now you've jinxed it. I'm doomed."

"Oh, stop being so dramatic."

"I'm serious. This is the last time you will ever see me alive. Either that or Mom will try to have me married off to someone."

"You'll do fine."

"Your lack of sympathy is inhuman. You're a horrible, horrible person. Have I mentioned that I hate your hair?"

–-

The restaurant was elegant in its understatement. Every piece of furniture was placed artfully, all around a central water feature, a small, gentle fountain. The trickling of water helped to mask any uncomfortable gaps in conversation. Guang was thankful for this, since the entire conversation so far had been an uncomfortable gap.

"So Mai," his wife asked, valiantly attempting to fill the air. "When were you planning to settle down?"

"I wasn't."

She blinked, confused. "Your gentleman friend told us all about your adventures" at 'adventures', her tone slipped a little, but picked up valiantly as she soldiered on, "and I must say, you surely must be tiring of that life by now. Do you never wish for the solidarity of home?"

"Can't say I do," was Mai's reply, delivered with all the warmth and feeling of a brick.

"Oh, Mai! Some days I am convinced you do these things solely to vex us," her mother declared, now quite overcome.

"I don't. Really."

Guang tried not to get involved. He loved his wife- really, he did- but a sharp tongue was not part of her arsenal. Her only weapon against her daughter, at least since Mai stopped respecting her for her position in the family, was an incredible tendency to bulldoze her way over any arguments. This facing off against Mai in a bad mood was not something he wanted to stick his hand in the middle of.

He envied his son right now.

–-

Sokka relaxed in the enormous chair. He and Mai's Dad had worked this out between them- since it was the servants' night off, and both had seen the need for Mai to at least be given the opportunity to talk to her parents without the convenient distraction that Sokka would provide, it had been simple enough to coordinate. So Sokka was babysitting.

"Are you Mai's friend?"

Sokka considered this.

"Yes," he replied.

"Oh," the kid responded, without any obvious inflection.

"Is that a problem?"

Tom-Tom thought, then shook his head vigorously.

"Good."

–-

"But Mai, I am simply worried about your future! If you persist with this _quite_ unseemly course, I dread to think of what will happen to you."

Mai was getting visibly annoyed now. Guang considered warning the staff to consider evacuation.

"Mom, do me a favour and cut the crap for once. This is about Sokka, isn't it."

"Perhaps it is." Guang was definitely considering evacuating himself, or perhaps throwing a bucket of ice water over both of them. "Mai, you know I don't like to interfere, but really he is not _suitable_ for you, dear."

Mai paused, which Guang was beyond thankful for, seeing as she had seemed on the brink of throwing something.

"You know what? I'm going to let you keep going here. Convince me, then."

"Mai, you know _perfectly well _why I do not approve. He's a barbarian in every sense of the word-"

"Actually, he shaves regularly."

"-And his manners are _quite_ atrocious. Do you not agree, darling?"

Guang realised with a shock that this was directed at him. This was a not inconsiderably awkward position. But then he was a diplomat.

"I do have to say that he seemed singularly uninterested in your retelling of the latest news regarding the birth of the Tangs' new daughter, and even went as far as to mock the Fangs and the exploits of their quite eligible son. I can hardly believe that he went as far as to describe the boy as 'inbred'. After all, the young Fang's enormous ears and disturbing teeth are hardly noticeable at all."

"You see? Your father agrees."

"I can tell."

–-

Sokka faced a dilemma. There was no sure way out of his current predicament with any surety of safety, and every second he deliberated only exacerbated the danger.

"Um...very nice?"

Tom-Tom beamed. Sokka let out a muted sigh of relief. He thought, although this was far from certain, that the kid had been telling a story of some sort, about a family of mushrooms (?) that went to Ba Sing Se (?) and met the Earth King (actually, he could see that one. It was hard to imagine how Kuei could _not_ be interested in a family of sentient, mobile fungi).

Something like that, anyway. But he was far from sure.

"So, what do you want to do now?" he asked.

Tom-Tom pondered.

"Read me a story?"

Sokka shrugged.

"Sure, why not?"

Tom-Tom leapt up from his seat excitedly, and dashed away into another room. Sokka was about to consider going after him when he returned, carrying with him a large, well-worn book, which he presented to Sokka with much enthusiasm.

On the cover, there appeared to be a very child-friendly Water Tribes warrior, wearing clothes that Sokka was slightly surprised to note were fairly accurate depictions of Northern wear. The choker around his throat marked him out as Chief, as did the beads in his hair, although he was wielding an impractically short spear and he had no beard or facial hair at all, which was definitely a rarity. He looked remarkably cheerful, too.

"Alright, I guess we can give this a shot. You sitting comfortably?"

In response, Tom-Tom scrambled up off the floor and onto one of the long sofas, curling up at the end closest to Sokka, among the pillows."

"Yes."

"Alright, let's get this show on the road. Ahem.

"_In the lands of the North, where the Black Rocks stand guard against the cold sea, in the dark night that is very long the Men of the Northlands sit by their great log fires and they tell a tale..."_

–-

"Mai, is it so hard for you to accept that I am concerned for you? You are still young, Mai, and no matter what you think your life will not always be as it is. Some day you will need stability, someone who will be _there_. Heaven help you if you have a _child_-"

"_Mom._ Stop it. I'm not going to justify myself to you, and I don't ask you to like it, but I _am_ going to ask you to respect my _damn_ choices. This is how my life is because I _wanted_ it to be this way, nothing else. Sokka- no, you know what? I don't have to justify _him_ to you, either. You don't know him, and he doesn't need defending from you."

The silence was deafening.

"I see. Very well, then. If you would excuse me for a moment."

She left the table, leaving Mai and her father alone.

Guang sighed.

"You see, this is what happens if you don't write more often, Mai."

–-

Sokka had finished the story about the journey to the South. He had finished the story about the land of really short people. He had finished the story about the highly inaccurate flying machine, although he had felt the need to embellish that one a little, and explain how such a machine might conceivably work. He had even finished the story about the ice dragon (he had liked that one a lot).

He was officially storied out.

Tom-Tom was asleep, on the sofa. Sokka wondered if he should move the kid. Then he remembered he had no idea where the kid's room was. And he was tired.

A nap couldn't hurt.

–-

"Mai..." Guang sighed.

"I'm not apologising."

"Mai, I know an exercise in futility when I see one. But I hope you understand that your mother is only worried about you."

"Pretty bad way of showing it."

"Mai, I don't want to-" he gave up. Perhaps this wasn't something he could fix, as much as he hated to admit it.

"How are you, though? Really?"

Mai considered this.

"Really? I'm okay. I'm happy."

"I'm glad."

You took your victories where you could.

–-

"Wake up. Come on, wake up."

Sokka blinked.

"Mai? What time is it?"

"About midnight. I just got back."

"Well, you're still in one piece, and I assume you're unmarried, so it can't have been as bad as you thought."

Mai didn't answer, instead sitting on the sofa where Tom-Tom had been.

"Right? You haven't been betrothed to anyone, have you? 'Cause I thought we could try the whole Agni-Kai thing if we ever had to."

"It's not that." She looked at the carpet, intently studying the weave.

"Well, what is it?"

"Am I cruel?"

Ooh, tricky question. There was only one way to deal with this- total honesty.

"Well... a little. Sometimes."

"Huh. Does it bother you?"

"You know the answer to that."

Mai smiled, and looked up at him.

"Huh. Come on, let's get to bed. I'm tired."

–-

**This one I had problems with. I actually had a whole thing written out for yesterday's slot, way before Maikka Fortnight even started. I read it and realised it was ass- strained, unoriginal, overdramatic, and generally trying too hard. So I deleted it. Second attempt was hardly better, in that it went nowhere and wasn't trying at all. So this is Mk. III, related in no way to Mk.s I and II. Also it's late. Therefore Awkward Tonal Shifts abound.  
**

**And Noggin the Nog is better than You.**


	13. Discrete

**Discrete.**

–-

Sokka repressed a flinch when the shouting started again. He pretended to be concentrating on his book, for the benefit of nobody but himself.

It had been fun, to start with. Mai's Dad, although kind of weird, was pretty cool, and her brother was six, but Sokka never really had that many problems with kids.

But Mai had a few problems with her Mom. They seemed to have been in a state of semi-argument since the dinner, and wow, hadn't that plan kind of backfired, huh?

But the tension had been palpable for about a week, until it finally snapped, and collapsed into an all-out argument.

That had been three days ago. And they were arguing again.

Sokka tried not to flinch every time he heard his name be brought up. It really, _really_ sucked to know that he was the reason for all this.

He had known that Mai didn't really get on with her parents, but he hadn't really known what that _meant _before. Before, there had been two kinds of parents in his mental lexicon- ones like his, and assholes. This was a little unfair. It wasn't that her mom didn't want what was best for Mai, it was more like she didn't _know_ what was best for Mai. In his opinion, anyway.

And neither of them was willing to explain.

Sokka didn't like it. Didn't like hearing it, didn't like knowing about it, didn't like Mai having to go through it, but most of all didn't like being unable to _do_ anything about it. He wanted to fix this, wanted to help her so much it was physically painful, but some things were just not his place, and besides, he had no idea _how_. And that sucked.

Doors slammed, ending the argument. Someone was coming upstairs.

There was, however, one thing Sokka could do: damage control.

Mai wrenched the door open, and Sokka stood up.

Some time ago, Sokka had formulated a few rough rules for dealing with Mai in a bad mood.

_Rule one: DO NOT DISAGREE. Not when Mai is in this mood. No matter what she says, agree. Agree your ass off._

"Let's get out of here. Now."

"Okay. Give me a second to pack." Sokka had, over the years, become proficient at packing in a hurry, and had learned to travel light.

Mai tapped her foot while Sokka grabbed his things and threw them into his bag, scrawled a hasty note thanking Mai's family for the stay, and as soon as he was done she grabbed him by the hand and dragged him to the window.

Sokka shook his head in resignment.

"Just once, I'd like to leave somewhere at a decent hour. Maybe even by the door."

–-

_Rule Two: Make things easier for her. She gets annoyed if she has to bottle up her mad long enough to rent a carriage, for example. Annoyed lasts longer than mad._

"Okay, we've got transport, we've got money, we've got a map, and we've even got a little food. So, where do you wanna go?" Sokka asked, as he steered the carriage away from Omashu, taking the north road.

"Away from here." Mai was sitting next to him, arms crossed, glaring at nothing.

"Okay. How about Gaoling? Haven't been out that way in a while."

"Okay."

The carriage rode on in silence. Sokka held the reins, mainly for show, while he counted the minutes.

"It's getting late."

_Rule Three: Make any necessary concessions. Most of the time, she'll notice. It helps._

"Mai, why don't you get some rest? It's been a long day, and it'll help."

Mai unwound, just a fraction. She looked tired. Really, really tired.

"That sounds like a good idea."

"Yeah. In the morning we can, I don't know, make a plan, or something."

Mai leant into him, although that might have just been exhaustion.

"Thanks."

"Hey, it's not a problem."

"Yes it is, and I appreciate it. I know I'm not the easiest person to live with sometimes, and I-"

"Hey, hey," Sokka interrupted. "I wouldn't still be here unless I wanted to be. Which I do, in case you were wondering."

"Do me a favour, and tell me if you ever start feeling otherwise. Turns out that makes things a lot simpler." She was drowsy now, exhausted form the effort of keeping up a blind rage.

Sokka smiled, softly.

"Sure. I promise."

"Thanks. Makes me feel better."

She kissed him, sleepily, and Sokka let the reins drop.

After a few moments, it became obvious that Mai was not about to move on her own accord, and Sokka was forced to almost carry her into the carriage, where she was asleep in minutes.

–-

**Short.**


	14. Impossible

**Impossible.**

–

He had been the first to find out, although he almost wished he hadn't, since then he'd have had someone to react to who wouldn't look at him as though he was a moron. But really, could you blame him? The news had been... surprising, to say the least.

He meant- it wasn't that there was anything wrong with her, but, he meant, apart from all the issues that swirled around the whole lot of them these days (and yeah, at least some of that was his fault- he didn't _mean_ to hold a grudge, and he _really_ didn't want to, but some things you've just got to walk away from to let them heal, and he never got the time to let things lie)- besides all that, he'd never have thought Mai would have the patience. It took a certain kind of mind to deal with Sokka, and really, you had to put up with some really... abnormal ways of thinking, and be prepared to wait for him to actually be impressive. It wasn't that he was stupid, even some of the time, it was more that he never bothered to utilise it unless there was some really pressing reason.

But they seemed to be making it work. They were certainly lively whenever he saw them, and that was quite a feat when one of them was Mai.

–

Wasn't it _delicious_?

Sure, some people were surprised, but really, that was a ridiculous way to react, but then again, a great many people _were_ ridiculous, and that was one of the few basic things she and Mai had always agreed on, if for different reasons. Maybe theirs wasn't the relationship people had expected, but she had known Mai long enough to know that she was rarely expected. That had always been something she had really admired about Mai, and in fact tried to bear her example in mind more often, and that was the fact that if she wanted to do something, she went ahead with it and stuck with it until she didn't want to any more. As for Sokka, well, she could see why Mai would want him- he was funny, smart (so she was told) and definitely cute.

Besides, green and steel-grey really did go surprisingly well together.

–

She had had a few misgivings about the whole thing.

Sure, after a few times, she had no reason to doubt Mai's sincerity. (Not that she'd had a reason after the first time, but she was damned if she wasn't going to make _absolutely sure._) And she'd known Sokka well enough to know when he was serious, and he'd been very serious indeed when he'd told her to stop being so hostile to Mai, and if she had a problem sort it out please, because he didn't like the idea that he was causing any more tensions between anybody (and she _really_ had to learn how to say no to him), and then he'd decided that all three of them would go out drinking.

Best and worst idea he had had in a very long time. Between the three of them, they might have consumed enough alcohol to pickle a small whale. Mai had... loosened up, to say the least, by the end of it.

(But it had been the beginning of the end, really)

After that, tensions had died down. She began to notice things, and perhaps Mai seemed a little more relaxed.

At the end of the week, she no longer had any reason to deny that both Mai and Sokka were serious about their commitment to each other. (No matter how much she might have wanted one)

Shut up. (No)

–

She had been Not Happy when she heard out.

Sokka had been perplexing her for the better part of a year. He had left soon after she married, which had been unpleasant, but he had at least written. The letters had been a kind of lifeline for her- she loved her husband fiercely, and wouldn't give him up for anything, but sometimes she regretted being married to a Fire Lord. He was wonderful, but unfortunately she had to take the Fire Nation with him. Sokka's messages had been a breath of fresh air.

And then she had been told that he had acquired a girlfriend. He had not mentioned this in any of his letters (although it did explain a few mysterious references to 'we', now that she thought about it). The girlfriend he had acquired was Mai. Her husband's ex.

Maybe she _had_ spent too long in the Fire Nation, because the first thing she thought of was an endless stream of conspiracy theories and panic and had Sokka gone and gotten himself into more trouble than he could handle again?

Her first thought had been to charge off into the unknown to find out what had happened.

Her second thought, thankfully, had been that her first thought was singularly moronic. After all, she had no idea where they were.

So she had asked Toph where they were. Toph had told her to shut up.

Toph was of the opinion that she might be leaping to conclusions. On balance, maybe she was right.

She was reserving judgement for now, at least. But she told Toph to try and get them to visit some time. It had been too long, anyway.

–

He was fairly sure he was the absolute last person to know about it. His wife had brought the news to him, and had clearly expected some response.

'a "...Really?" a few moments of contemplation, and a shrug' was apparently not the reaction she had expected of him. So he had tried a different one, even if it was only in the privacy of his own head.

Woo. His ex-girlfriend was dating his brother-in-law. Well, that explained why Sokka hadn't been back since the wedding, anyway.

But really, he didn't think he could muster up much more of a response. Well, actually, he supposed he could manage a 'good for them, I hope it all works out'. He'd regretted the way his relationship with Mai had ended- not one of his finest moments, he had to to admit. Putting it bluntly, if he had displayed the same level of diplomacy in a meeting with the Earth King, the war would have restarted in short order.

So good for her. She was a good person, and she deserved more than she had got. He knew Sokka's style of precise enthusiasm, and if he directed that level of commitment towards Mai, well, maybe they stood a chance after all.

And if it worked out, perhaps they could come and visit some time. Katara missed her brother sometimes.

–

**Not the last post. That's due later this evening. It will be longer.**


	15. Shadow

**Shadow.**

–-

"I'm not sure about this garden. It's too neat."

"Too _neat_? All the things you could have complained about, and you think it's too _neat_?"

"Well, yeah. It's smug."

"It's a garden."

"It's still smug."

Mai sighed, very nearly content.

"You know, you're hard work sometimes."

"I do my best."

They walked on, in the early evening light.

"So, is this actually what people in the Fire Nation do for fun? Walk in smug gardens reflecting on how well-off they are, or how well-off the people they are visiting are?"

"Sometimes. I've never really seen the appeal."

"So, why are we doing it?"

"Because we're avoiding your sister. She glares at me."

"Mai, you know you weren't exactly what you'd call _polite._"

"What's your point?"

"My point is you were hardly helping the mood."

"If anyone's allowed to, I am."

"Mai... does it still bother you? Really?"

"...Not really. But she doesn't know that."

"Good."

"Why? Worried?"

"About you? What do you think?"

"What do I think? I think-"

A wet _thunk, _and Sokka was slammed to the ground, propelled onto his back.

Mai was moving before he hit the ground, reaching for a knife she didn't have- she had stupidly agreed not to carry as many as she usually did, so there weren't any up her sleeves-

But her eyes had followed the path of the arrow, from Sokka's chest-

And that was as far as they got. He wasn't moving.

She was on her knees in moments, trying despairingly to remember how to look for a pulse. Fingers at the throat? She'd seen someone do that once.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

No-

Wait.

Oh thank the Spirits.

Footsteps rushing from behind her.

She pulled out a knife and span, almost killing a distraught looking maid.

"Lady Mai, what is- is the Lord Sokka alright?"

"Listen to me. Go get the Fire Lady. Get her now, and make sure she has water. Why are you still here. _GO._"

The maid ran as though her life depended on it.

Mai resumed her pointless vigil, holding her breath between each ragged pulse, torturing herself with the feel of it, but not knowing would be so much worse.

The Fire Lady, her husband trailing behind, took far too long to arrive. She screamed and shouted but Mai wasn't listening. She only paid attention when the healing began. She took it as her cue that it was okay to fall apart now.

So she did. Quietly.

–-

He had been moved, the arrow having long been extracted, a process Mai wished she thought she would be able to forget. He was in bed now. He could almost be sleeping.

Someone was saying something. Something along the lines of Someone's going to have to stay with him, and I'll post guards, but you're right.

Mai rotated the bedside chair and sat pointedly in it, one leg crossed over the other.

She could kill someone with twelve different blades from this position without even getting up.

Bring it on.

She might have said that out loud, because his sister looked less panicked, and sort of smiled as she got up.

"I'll be back to check on him soon." Zuko had already walked out the door, but the Fire Lady dithered, one foot in the hallway.

"Thank you." And then she was gone.

"Whatever," Mai told the doorframe.

–-

She breathed into her knuckles, and tried to ignore the way it almost came out a choke.

"I _knew_ this would happen. I told you, you're never careful. You _idiot_.

"I'm very angry at you, you know. If we had a couch, you would definitely be sleeping on it for a month. I'd make sure there were scorpions in it, too."

"You're lucky to be alive, you know that? You took an arrow to the _lung_. Most people _die_ from that. But you're lucky, and you got people who patched you up, so now you aren't going to die. There's hardly even going to be a scar.

"I'm just saying you could show a little gratitude, that's all."

She paused, as something occurred to her.

"Why am I even talking to you? You can't hear me. Well, consider this a dry run.

"Oh Agni, what was I going to say? I can't even remember. That's depressing. Oh yes, I remember now- Sokka, you are so _fucking stupid_ sometimes."

She put her forehead in her hands, and groaned in frustration.

"Oh, this is pathetic. I'm sitting here getting choked up, and you don't even have the decency to be _dying_. I'm getting emotional over you needing _bed rest_, for crying out loud. When did this happen? How did this become my life? I'm supposed to be stoic, unaffected. That's me.

"You never really bought that, though, did you? You're too... dogged. You dug and dug and somehow wormed your way into my _life _and then things like this happen. This is ridiculous. And stupid. But it's my life, and I let it get like that, so I guess it's my fault.

"You know what's strange and completely unacceptable, though? I'm fine with this. I can't think of a thing I'd change. And that's _really_ fucked up, because you can't call our life idyllic, not by a long shot. It's not a fairy tale, it's several degrees of strange, it's dangerous, it's about as stable as a sandcastle in a flash flood, and if this were a fairy tale you'd wake up now, and I'd not notice for a few seconds, and then I'd say something really important sounding like _I love you_, but really that's just words, and..."

She trailed off, hopefully. Sokka's slow breathing was the only sound.

"So you see, it's not any kind of ideal, but at least it's mine. Ours. Whatever.

"And there's someone trying to creep up on this door. How nice."

When the door swung open, Mai held her breath. A black shape slipped in. Mai didn't move.

When the shape drew a short but serviceable blade, Mai took action.

She was feeling oddly drained, though, so she only pinned the would-be assassin to the wall by one ear.

After a few minutes, the man's screams subsided to pained whimpers. Mainly because Mai had explained exactly where any one of the forty-one other pointy objects she had on her person could potentially go.

His cooperation had aggravated her. She knew that everyone, Sokka included, knew how important it was that this assassin be alive and interrogated, but there was nothing more she wanted at this point than to tear this bastard apart.

Just half an excuse. Something she could twist into 'self-defence'. It would be her word against his, and she was quite certain he would be incapable of saying a _thing_.

But it seemed that she was altogether too good at non-verbal communication, even in near-pitch darkness, and the worm stayed quiet.

Presently, guards arrived, drawn to the screams, and enthusiastically dragged away the would-be murderer with much huffing and puffing.

It was about this point that Sokka woke up.

"Wha- what's- I've gone blind!"

Mai slammed the door on the guards, and rushed to the bedside.

"It's all dark! Is someone-" he grabbed in the dark, and their hands met "Mai? Is that you?"

"Genius," she breathed, covering up her palpable relief.

"Mai, I can't _see_! What am I going to do? I can't even earthbend!"

Mai rolled her eyes.

"Sokka, you can't see anything because it's the middle of the night. I haven't lit any lamps."

"Oh. Oh, oh that's okay then. Could you light one, please? Just in case?"

"Fine," she grumbled, and reluctantly moved away to light the lamp. Soon, a soft orange glow filled the bedroom. Sokka still looked pale, for him, but he was alive and moving and that was good enough for her right now.

"Um, Mai?" he said, trying to sit up, and gasping in pain, before noticing the bandages all over his chest. "Why am I bandaged up in bed? What happened?"

Mai blinked. He didn't remember? She hurried to her seat, and sat facing him.

His eyes focused on her face.

"You've been crying."

Mai snorted. "What did you expect? You'd been shot in the chest. You know me, assume the worst."

"You thought-" he shook his head, focusing on the matter at hand. "All I remember is us taking a walk through the palace grounds, and then something really, _really_ hurt. I must have blacked out."

"You did, and it probably saved you from a second shot. Someone tried to kill you."

His eyes widened slightly. "Me? ...Really?"

"Yes."

"You're sure I didn't do something heroic? Like dive in front of an arrow meant for you or something?" He was rambling, but Mai couldn't help but smile.

"Sorry. They were definitely after you. It's to be expected, I suppose. Your little club has got you involved in the secessionists' issue so much, they've started putting two and two together."

"But-" he's straining, trying to figure everything out _now_, and this is one of the reasons he needs Mai, to tell him when he's being stupid.

"Sokka, you can worry about it tomorrow. You need to rest. No arguments."

Sokka smiled. "Yes Ma'am."

She leant forward, and their lips met, before getting better acquainted.

"Hmm- ah!"

Sokka winced, and Mai jerked upwards, eyes flicking open. She had placed a hand on his chest.

"Sorry."

"Not a problem," he said, with a wry smile. "Just keep that in mind for a little while, could you?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'll do my best."

The joking helped, but she knew it would be a while before she could fully put the sight of a black shaft lodged in Sokka's chest out of her mind.

–-

**And we're done. This has burnt me out almost completely, taken every idea I have had in the past month and half-realised them, failed to express them properly, and in some cases made me rage-delete them. I never got the cactus juice scenario I was so looking forward to down right, or the one with the windmill where I got to make the sweet Don Quixote reference. It has been, with only a few exceptions, been a constant strain of agh I didn't edit that at all, agh that was such a piece of ass, agh I could have done that so much better. It has deprived me of sleep, and even made me feel the need to stop writing Mai and Sokka for a while, something I was fairly sure would never happen.**

**I wouldn't have missed it for a god-damn _thing_. Props to everyone who participated, and also mad props to Loopy777 _look what you have done, I hope you're feeling pleased with yourself._  
**


End file.
